Yahoo Movies Sherlock star was nearly Star Wars' Queen Amidala
For better or worse, Natalie Portman has been immortalised in Star Wars canon as Queen Padmé Amidala. But she wasn't the only actress in the running for the movie.
On the latest edition of The Two Shot Podcast, Sherlock's Vinette Robinson has been chatting about her career and missing out on playing Leia and Luke's mother.
Robinson, who plays Sgt Sally Donovan in the worldwide BBC smash hit television show, revealed her first audition was for the opening episode of the George Lucas space opera, The Phantom Menace.
Bradford-born Vinette began auditioning when she was thirteen years old but told Parkinson she "didn't get any" big parts that early in her career.
"I remember my first ever audition was for Star Wars for the Natalie Portman character, hilariously," she said.
Portman played Queen Amidala (or Padmé, depending on your point of view) in Star Wars episodes one through three, with the role ending in 2005's Revenge of the Sith. When filming began on The Phantom Menace, in 1997, she turned 16 years old.
As an actress of colour (her father is black and mother is white), it's interesting to note that Lucasfilm considered her as the mother of two characters always portrayed as white.
Back to the audition process, in which Vinette describes the problems she had, mainly down to her "strong Yorkshire accent".
"I didn't know what to do and I was really nervous and I felt like I had to talk really proper, like I tried to talk properly," adding she had to "sit up really straight".
Of course, in The Phantom Menace, Portman does use an English accent as the Naboo royal, and spends a lot of the film sitting up straight in fancy chairs.
And Portman joined another huge franchise many years later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Jane Foster – a role which may see her make a return to the Avengers world.
Robinson, who most recently starred in the BBC's drama The A Word, will be seen soon alongside Sir Derek Jacobi, Anna Maxwell Martin and Roger Allam in the UK black comedy film Ilkley.
The Two Shot Podcast Episode 47, featuring Vinette Robinson, is available to listen to now on Podbean.
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