Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, Columns, Cinematical
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There are many reasons to love Luc Besson’s 1994 movie, ‘Léon’](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-professional/1128/main): the brutal action, the haunting score, the top-notch cinematography and, of course, the acting. Gary Oldman brings psychosis to life as Stansfield – a demented, crooked cop with a score to settle. Jean Reno is the quiet killer, Léon, and gives a performance that’s both thrilling, understated and deeply emotional all at once. And then there’s the film’s youngest actor, Natalie Portman, a girl of only 13 who, beautifully and convincingly, plays a character of the same age forced to grow up fast.
Portman looks like a babe in the woods in this casting reel that features the actress reading a few lines of Mathilda’s dialogue. It’s a far cry from the determined girl who sets out to avenge her family’s violent deaths, but auditions are rough, cold reads of a character, and Portman’s super-serious intensity still manages to shine through.