With the Academy Awards just around the corner, speculation has never been higher about who will walk away with the top honors, and the Best Actress category is particularly interesting. All the buzz points toward it coming down to a contest between Isabelle Huppert for Elle and Natalie Portman for Jackie, and since I'm sure you want to be fully informed either way, I bet you're wondering — does Natalie Portman have any Oscars? I'm not suggesting that it makes her any more or less deserving of the Academy Award for Best Actress on Sunday, but Portman does already have a statuette of her very own, which she took home for 2011's Black Swan.
So she's tasted victory before, but it's been a long six years since she took that well-deserved turn on the Oscar stage. In the meantime, she's gotten married — to Benjamin Millepied in 2012, raised a son, and logged time on projects from the Thor franchise to Jane's Got A Gun, before pouring herself into another Oscar-worthy performance like the one she turns in as Jackie Kennedy in Jackie. It's clear that Portman picks her projects carefully, and she's more than put her time in. I don't think anyone would begrudge her taking home her second Oscar for a knockout showing like this one.
But if 2017 isn't Portman's year, she also has experience with Oscar defeat, so I think she'll be fine regardless: the 35-year old star was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for Closer, but ultimately lost to Cate Blanchett for The Aviator.
So when you really look at it, Portman has a nice little streak going — every six years, get nominated for an Oscar and maybe pop out a baby around the same time, if you're in the mood. (She's pregnant with her second now.) It's not a bad way to run your career, so whether Portman wins or loses on Sunday, she's a winner in my book, and for more than just her performance in Jackie.
