If you watch Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace today, your brain might do a double-take. You see Queen Amidala sitting on her throne, looking regal and stony-faced. Then, a few scenes later, you see Padmé, the "maid," scrubbing a droid or wandering through a desert. For years, casual fans just assumed Natalie Portman was pulling double duty with some clever 1999-era editing. But the truth is actually much weirder. The girl in the heavy white face paint wasn't always Portman. Often, it was a then-unknown twelve-year-old named Keira Knightley.
The Keira Knightley Natalie Portman Phantom Menace connection is one of those Hollywood "glitch in the Matrix" moments. Before she was a pirate or a Regency-era heroine, Knightley was literally hired to be a human shield for a future Oscar winner. It’s a casting choice that worked so well it actually caused problems on set.
Why George Lucas Needed a Lookalike
George Lucas had a very specific problem when he started filming the prequels. He needed a decoy. In the story, Queen Amidala uses a body double to protect herself from assassins and to move freely among her people without being recognized.
Lucas didn't want to use CGI for this. He wanted two real human beings who looked so similar that the audience—and the characters—would be genuinely fooled.
Enter Keira Knightley.
At the time, she was just a kid from London with a few minor credits. But when she put on the "Kabuki-style" makeup and the massive, headache-inducing headdresses, the resemblance to Natalie Portman was uncanny. Honestly, it was a bit creepy. Portman was about fourteen or fifteen during filming, and Knightley was just twelve. Despite the age gap, their facial structures were so similar that they became the perfect cinematic duo.
The Mom Test
There is a famous story from the set that basically proves how good the casting was. Apparently, once both girls were in full Queen regalia—heavy white makeup, red lip dots, and elaborate gowns—their own mothers couldn't tell them apart.
🔗 Read more: All I Watch for Christmas: What You’re Missing About the TBS Holiday Tradition
Imagine being a parent and not knowing which kid is yours because they’re both buried under five pounds of velvet and silk.
Knightley has joked about this in interviews later, mentioning that she was basically an extra. She’s not wrong. Her character, Sabé, doesn’t have a massive amount of dialogue, and when she does speak as the Queen, her voice was actually dubbed over by Natalie Portman in post-production to keep the illusion seamless.
Which Scenes Feature Keira Knightley?
This is where people get confused. If you want to spot the difference, you have to look closely.
For a huge chunk of the first half of the movie, the person you see acting as "The Queen" is actually Knightley. While Portman is playing "Padmé" (the handmaiden), Knightley is the one standing in front of the Trade Federation or sitting in the throne room.
- The Escape from Naboo: When the Queen and her retinue are being escorted down the grand staircase by battle droids, that's Keira Knightley in the lead.
- The Black Feathered Dress: There’s a scene on the ship where the Queen is wearing a black dress with a huge feathered headpiece. That’s her.
- The Gungan Meeting: When Padmé finally reveals herself to Boss Nass and says, "I am Queen Amidala," the person she is standing next to—the one everyone thought was the Queen—is Knightley.
Basically, if the "Queen" is on screen and "Padmé" is also in the background, you are looking at Keira.
A Very Boring Big Break
You’d think being in a Star Wars movie would be the highlight of a young actor’s life. For Knightley, it was kinda... dull. She has admitted in recent years that she barely remembers being there.
💡 You might also like: Al Pacino Angels in America: Why His Roy Cohn Still Terrifies Us
"I was sitting in the background for such a long time that I’d actually fallen asleep," she told Total Film a few years back. She spent most of her time on set sitting in a chair, trying not to let the heavy headdresses give her a permanent migraine. She didn't even have a full script because the project was so shrouded in secrecy.
In fact, she didn't even realize she was playing a decoy until near the end of filming. She thought she was just one of the many handmaidens. It wasn't until someone explained the plot to her that she went, "Oh, okay, that makes sense."
The "Clones" Rumor and Career Confusion
Because they looked so alike, a weird urban legend started circulating in the early 2000s. Some people actually thought Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley were related, or that Lucas had used some sort of proto-deepfake technology.
Even after Knightley became a massive star with Pirates of the Caribbean, the confusion didn't stop.
Portman has mentioned being chased through airports by fans screaming for "Elizabeth Swann." Meanwhile, Knightley has signed autographs for people who were convinced she was the girl from Leon: The Professional.
It’s a bizarre legacy for a movie that many people initially criticized for its "wooden" acting. While the dialogue might have been stiff, the visual trickery was world-class. The Keira Knightley Natalie Portman Phantom Menace casting wasn't just a fun piece of trivia; it was a fundamental part of how the Naboo political plot worked. If we could see the difference instantly, the whole "Queen in hiding" thing would have looked ridiculous.
📖 Related: Adam Scott in Step Brothers: Why Derek is Still the Funniest Part of the Movie
Beyond the Movie: The Legend of Sabé
While Knightley moved on to Oscar nominations and blockbusters, her character, Sabé, actually became a big deal in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
In the comics and novels (like Queen's Shadow), Sabé is a badass spy. She survives the events of the prequels and eventually goes on a mission to investigate what actually happened to Padmé after Revenge of the Sith. She even ends up crossing paths with Darth Vader.
It’s funny to think that the girl who fell asleep on a chair in 1997 is now the face of one of the most complex supporting characters in the franchise’s lore.
How to tell them apart today
If you’re doing a rewatch and want to be the "actually..." person in the room, here are the tells:
- The Jawline: Knightley has a slightly sharper, more angular jawline. Even at twelve, you can see the bone structure that would later define her look.
- The Eyes: Portman’s eyes are a bit softer, while Knightley has a more intense, "fierce" gaze.
- The Voice: This is the trickiest one. Since they dubbed Knightley’s voice with Portman’s, you can’t rely on your ears. You have to watch the mouth movements.
The next time you're scrolling through Disney+ and The Phantom Menace pops up, take a second to look at the handmaidens. It's wild to think that George Lucas managed to hide one of the most famous actresses in the world in plain sight, just by putting her in a big hat and some white paint.
If you're interested in more behind-the-scenes weirdness, you might want to look into how they used forced perspective to make the actors look different heights, or check out the Queen's Shadow book series to see what happened to the decoys after the credits rolled.