Natalie Portman Hilariously Recreates Star Wars and Thor Roles for The Late Late Show

As James Corden’s tenure as the host of The Late Late Show comes to a close, he is going all in on having fun with it. In last night’s episode, he brought in Natalie Portman, a green screen, and a bunch of really cheap props and costumes to do a rapid-fire retrospective on her career. Recreating scenes from almost every major movie she has ever appeared in, Portman gave special attention to her roles as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and Jane Foster in the trio of Thor movies that featured her character (too bad she wasn’t in Ragnarok, honestly; that would have been a fun one for this).

Let’s be honest, though. The best one is Mars Attacks. If only because the older the movie, the more fun it was to watch Portman try to find a way to access that performance.

You can see it below.

Corden explained his exit in a segment of his show last April, and teased that the now-current final season would be them going out “with a bang.”

The British comedian remains active as an actor, having appeared in the Trolls movies, Ocean’s Eight, The Emoji Movie, Cats, and Amazon’s Cinderella — among numerous other screen credits — over the course of the last five years. This is a marked difference between Corden and most other late-night hosts, who primarily focus either on stand-up comedy or the late night show itself.

“I never want this show to overstay its welcome in any way,” Corden said at the time. “I always want to love making it. And I really think that a year from now, that will be a good time to move on and see what else might be out there.”

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Corden revealed why he sees this current moment as the best time to say goodbye to The Late Late Show.

“You don’t want to be making a mistake but I just feel compelled to do it,” Corden explained. “I feel like I’ve got to, I feel like if I don’t leave now, I never will…or it will be me just being pushed out the door.” 

“Change in your life comes with a huge amount of fear, professional, personal,” Corden added. “We’re going to move back to London, we’re going to put three kids into a new school. That in itself would be a lot to do, and then to walk away from what just has been the most magical experience I could have ever wished for…to, with intention, turn everything upside down comes with a lot of fear… I just think how things end is important,” he said. “How you close things off is really, really important. I think that it matters, and I think I’ve done 1200 shows by the time we finish — that is a lot of TV. We have done things on the show that far exceeded anything I thought we were capable of.” 

The Late Late Show With James Corden airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. on CBS. 

Corden is the latest late night icon to step away from the desk; in recent years, Jay Leno retired after years on The Tonight Show, and Leno’s onetime replacement, Conan O’Brien, left late night after 28 years, and will launch a new variety show on HBO Max.