You hear all kinds of stories about the unusual places where Academy Award winners subsequently keep their prized statues. Emma Thompson (as well as many others) keeps hers on display in the bathroom, Russell Crowe stores his in the midst of a chicken coop, and others have them stashed out of sight in closets or flaunted them in family trophy cases. The common thread here is, they tend to know where the award is. Natalie Portman, however, has no idea where she left her Oscar.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter about a wide array of topics, ranging from the recent elections in Israel, her directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, and much more, the subject of Hollywood’s obsession with Oscar came up. When asked if she keeps her in her Paris home, the 33-year-old actress said:
I don't know where it is. I think it's in the safe or something. I don't know. I haven't seen it in a while. I mean, Darren actually said to me something when we were in that whole thing that resonated so deeply. I was reading the story of Abraham to my child and talking about, like, not worshipping false idols. And this is literally like gold men. This is lit¬er¬ally worshipping gold idols — if you worship it. That's why it's not displayed on the wall. It's a false idol.
Portman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan. She plays Nina Sayers, a young, talented ballet dancer in New York City who wins the lead role in her prestigious company’s production of Swan Lake. Pushed by her overbearing mother, and chased by a mysterious rival (Mila Kunis), she starts to come apart at the seams, and becomes increasingly erratic, haunted by visions that may or may not be real. Though it’s not your traditional horror movie, it certainly is a genre-bending film and fits into that category if you want it to.
If Portman is worried about anyone thinking she worships the false idol of Oscar, not knowing where she put her little golden man should go a long way to convincing people otherwise. This is the kind of item you think you’d keep track of, at least in the back of your mind somewhere. But then again, never having won anything of any great significance, I wouldn’t really know. If you’re fortunate enough to wind up with one of these things in your possession at some point in your life, where will you keep it?
