Natalie Portman or Kirsten Dunst?

Natalie Portman was 19 years old when she was cast alongside Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Christopher Walken in Mike Nichols’ Central Park production of “The Seagull.” As the Oscar-winning actress tells author Mark Harris in his new book, “Mike Nichols, A Life” (now available for purchase), it was the director who gave her the encouragement to stand next to acting titans such as Streep and Hoffman and not feel completely out of her league. Nichols became a mentor figure to Portman during the production, the likes of which Portman never had or never would have again in Hollywood.

As Harris writes in “Mike Nichols, A Life”: “‘I was nineteen,’ says Portman, ‘and I hadn’t done anything I had needed to research except for Anne Frank. I’d watch Phil [Hoffman] write down question after question in his notebook, and Meryl [Streep] would make up songs to sing and put them in her pocket just in case her character suddenly wanted to burst into song.’ She feared she was out of her depth and turned to Nichols, whom she found to be not only a sensitive director but also ‘the only older man who mentored me without there ever being a creepy element in it.'”