Portman revealed at Anderson's "Hotel"

By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - When Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" expands to some 600-700 screens Friday, moviegoers will get two unexpected treats: his 13-minute "Part 1" intro to the film, "Hotel Chevalier," and the first big-screen glimpse of star Natalie Portman's bare derriere.

Aside from providing a distraction from publicity over "Darjeeling" star Owen Wilson's late-August suicide attempt, the big-screen "Chevalier" bow also capitalizes on Portman's decision to do nude scenes after years spent resisting it.

The actress asked Mike Nichols to remove the nudity from her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a stripper in 2004's "Closer," and used a body double in Milos Forman's 2006 release "Goya's Ghosts."

When asked why she agreed to do the brief scenes, Portman said, "I don't know why, exactly. Sometimes you make rules for yourself and sometimes those rules are made to be broken. You have to test things out and see what works for you, and this felt right."

"I begged Wes to work with me and show me a script" since they met more than three years ago," she told the Hollywood Reporter. "I really loved it. He has the finest taste possible."

Clearly money wasn't part of Portman's motivation. Unlike the $12.5 million Demi Moore received for her topless role in the 1996 bomb "Striptease," she and Schwartzman weren't paid anything for the low-budget, two-day shoot filmed with two cameras donated by Panavision. There's nothing prurient about the two nude shots -- aside from the rear, another shows her like a statue from the side in a pose that wouldn't be out of place in an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot.

Anderson shot "Chevalier" on his own dime a year before the feature and incorporated it as the backstory for "Darjeeling" star/co-screenwriter Jason Schwartzman's character. He debated adding the tale of two estranged lovers into the feature, showing it with the film (as it screened during its New York Film Festival premiere) or keeping the two separate. He decided to release it for free on Apple iTunes Store three days before the September 29 "Darjeeling" limited release and slot it as a DVD extra.

"Darjeeling" has taken in nearly $4 million in its limited release. But while critical reaction has been mixed for Anderson's reunion with his "Rushmore" star Schwartzman, the short has received more widespread acclaim.

Portman's brief, wordless appearance near the end of "Darjeeling" has been as mystifying to many moviegoers as the promotional intro before showings to date, which suggests they download the short to get some background on a film they're just about to watch.

At the Apple Store Soho premiere of "Chevalier" in New York, Anderson voiced several concerns on how to present it, ideally mirroring the jump in time between Schwartzman's character's Parisian romantic interlude and his train trip across India. "Ideally I wanted someone to watch the short, take a break, think about it for a week and then watch the feature," he said.

"That's kind of hard to organize at a multiplex."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter