Natalie Portman might play Padmé again if she ever got a call

“To those who act as agents of chaos, I say this…please, let me play Padmé again!” Natalie Portman, who played Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, may be down to reprise the role…if only anybody bothered to ask her.

In a new interview with GQ as part of their “Actually Me” video series, Natalie Portman said that returning as Padmé Amidala, the teenage queen of Naboo who later becomes senator, would be something to consider, although no offer has been made. “No one’s ever asked me to return, but I’m open to it.”

Padmé was of course a key character in the trilogy, which ran from 1999’s The Phantom Menace to 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, with Natalie Portman doing her best to get through those scripts, which were coarse and rough and irritating, to say the least. But the character was actually indirectly referenced to before all the way back in 1983’s Return of the Jedi in a brief exchange between her son, Luke Skywalker, and daughter, Leia Organa (uh, spoiler…?).

While Natalie Portman may not get to play Padmé Amidala again, those movies will still be fresh to many…even Oscar-winning writer-directors. Last year, Taika Waititi, who directed Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder (after playing Jane Foster twice before), revealed that he let it slip that he forgot Portman was even in Star Wars. “Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies.’ I forgot about those ones.” In the GQ interview, Portman responded, “I thought he was joking! He’s such a joker that I thought it was a joke. And then afterwards he said in some interview that he, like, was cringing afterwards.” But that’s for the better, right?…For the better, right?

Although many blasted–and continue to blast–the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Portman is confident that it has its loyal followers. “With the perspective of time, it’s been re-evaluated by a lot of people who actually really love them now. There’s a very avid group of people who think they’re the best ones now!”

Would you want to see Natalie Portman return as Padmé in some capacity? Could she fit back into the Star Wars universe without it feeling forced? Let us know below!