Natalie Portman Eats a Lot of This Food for Dinner — And It’s the Secret to Her Slender Physique

“He picked me, Mommy. I am going to the Swan Queen. […] I just want to be perfect.” These were the lines Natalie Portman said in her 2010 movie Black Swan, and she ended up winning the Oscar trophy for her role. It was no surprise, given that the actress toiled both her mind and body to become the perfect “Nina” that the character required her to be. NBC New York reported that she lost 20 pounds in six months to prepare for Nina’s slender ballerina physique by following a 1,200-calorie-a-day vegan diet every day combined with an intense eight-hour workout routine. 

For Portman, the process is the same for all of her movies. She works hard and plays harder. In a 2017 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she shared what she eats in a day. “I’m vegan, so I generally have a very clean diet; I usually have oatmeal or avocado toast in the morning. And Mother’s Milk tea because I’m breast-feeding. Normally I don’t have caffeine, but when I’m working, I’ll drink coffee if I’m tired,” the Thor: Love And Thunder star said. In a recent interview with POPSUGAR New York, she talked about her diet, saying, "Everyone has to decide for themselves."

For lunch, her preference was Mexican food, specifically tacos. Once a week, she loved to indulge in a glass of wine or beer or champagne, wrapping up the day with a bowl of pasta or Japanese food. She also confessed that, at the time, she used to make "a lot of couscouses and Middle Eastern food" for dinner.  At the time of this interview, the Golden Globes actress was struck with postpartum hunger. She revealed that she ordered “10 cartons of Van Leeuwen vegan ice cream” for nighttime cravings. "It's my guilty pleasure. Banana Salted Caramel is delicious, and Mint Chip is excellent. They're in my freezer, so I can have a scoop before bed," she confessed.

While the actress was working for her role in Thor, her diet included a lot of protein and a lot of calories, as Naomi Pendergast, her personal trainer and pilates instructor for the movie, shared with Harper’s Bazaar. “Natalie is a vegan, so from the start we knew we had to increase her protein intake quite a bit,” Pendergast said. “Natalie’s typical day of eating during filming was around five meals a day, plus three vegan protein shakes. Breakfast most mornings would be oats with berries and a protein shake; lunch was falafel with salad and a protein shake; dinner was a vegan curry and a protein shake.” 

In between meals, she usually had “nuts, fruit, or coconut yogurt with seeds.” Workouts were a personalized mix of leg pulls, weight-lifting, lat pull-downs, dumbbell rows, and more. The actress is currently streaming in Apple TV’s series Fountain of Youth and also gracing the photo shoots of Dior. Recently, she made a show-stopping appearance at the Paris Fashion Week, glitzing gorgeous black in a glossy silk dress buttoned up on the placket, toasted almond locks styled at one side of her face, a smokey eye make-up, and natural lips glowing with her classy pearl-drop smile. A lot of protein, a lot many calories, and a lot more confidence packaged in one sculpted body. Portman, like Nina, is perfect.