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Natalie Portman, The Lonely Island, & Seth Meyers Talk "Natalie's Rap" on SNL
"You were beyond anybody's expectations," Seth Meyers said of Portman's performance in the 2006 digital short.
Natalie Portman became a bonafide star at 12 years old with her role in The Professional, and she only grew bigger with roles in Star Wars, Closer, and Garden State. By the time she hosted her first Saturday Night Live episode on March 4, 2006, fans had a pretty solid grip on her public image. But with help from The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers, Portman shattered all preconceived notions about her with a perfectly-executed SNL digital short, "Natalie's Rap."
"Natalie's Rap" starts off like a regular press junket interview, with a reporter (Season 31 cast member Chris Parnell) asking the actress, "What's the day in the life of Natalie Portman really like?"
"Do you really want to know?" Portman asks before launching into a profanity-laced banger with R-rated lyrics about her proudly rude behavior, cheating at Harvard, and enthusiastic substance abuse, among other scandals. She also stone-cold slaps Seth Meyers.
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The video was an instant sensation for two reasons. First, the derelict behavior Portman described was so unlike what one would expect from her. But even more so, the sketch never would've worked so well were it not for Portman's full commitment and extremely solid flow.
Nearly 18 years later, Meyers and The Lonely Island members Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer looked back at the instant-classic in a May episode of their SNL digital short rewatch podcast — and Meyers got the opportunity to reminisce with Portman on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Seth Meyers, Natalie Portman, and The Lonely Island reflect on writing the "Natalie's Rap" lyrics
"Natalie came in and was like, 'Hey, let's do a song.' And she wanted to do a rap song," Taccone said on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. "But we were like, 'I don't know if we can do that. You got to come kind of hard if you're going to do that.'"
"She just started doing a Lil' Kim verse, and was very good and very convincing," Samberg chimed in.
"It was a foul verse," Taccone agreed.
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"And we all just started dying laughing, and being like, 'Oh yeah, that will really work. No one is going to see this coming.' And we just started writing it." Modeling the song's interview wraparound structure after N.W.A. member Easy-E's "No More ?'s," per the podcast, the "Natalie's Rap" lyrics were primarily written by Schaffer.
And as for why Samberg is inexplicably dressed like a Viking in the clip, he told Meyers, Schaffer, and Taccone, "The thought process was something to the effect of, well, it's got to be totally different than 'Lazy Sunday.' Like, honestly, it might be that stupid, you know? And maybe also because I was singing and I knew I wasn't a good singer, that it was like a character."
Meyers deemed the song "mind-boggingly, graphically filthy," adding that getting to sing one of the lines was "very exciting."
When Portman visited Late Night with Seth Meyers in July 2024, Meyers told The Lady in the Lake star that her performance was "beyond anybody's highest expectations."
Looking back at the night it debuted, Meyers told her, "You have all the stress of doing the live show, but it must have been so cool to just be able to stand back and watch 'Natalie's Rap' the first time it played and realize 'Oh, this is red hot.'"
"I never really feel that way about myself," a humble Portman laughed. "But, the adrenaline and creativity of Saturday Night Live — I was just like 'oh, my God, I want to do this as often as I can!'"
When Portman returned to host on February 3, 2018, she did do it again in a sequel, "Natalie's Rap 2."
Watch "Natalie's Rap" from Season 31, Episode 13, and stream every season of Saturday Night Live anytime on Peacock.
