It’s not uncommon for movies to make actors look taller than they really are. Just ask Tom Cruise, whose “Top Gun” costar, Kelly McGillis, had to remove her heels and slump sometimes so she wasn’t towering over him. Natalie Portman is 5-foot-3 and if you didn’t notice it, she’s standing a little taller in “Thor: Love and Thunder.” The actress explained to Deadline that her director and costar, Taika Waititi, wanted Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor alter ego to be closer in height to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor:

“Taika imagined this change in Jane and it was a really great proposition that he had to join his wild ride. It was amazing to get to be challenged with that because I don’t think there’s many people who would cast a 5-foot-3 woman as a 6-foot character, so it was great to be able to get to imagine how someone who’s that big walks through the world, certainly not the same as me, always looking up at people, who always feels like a kid in every situation.”

Like the “The Phantom Menace,” with its Muppet Baby Anakin Skywalker, or even the recent Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” with its Muppet Baby Princess Leia, “Love and Thunder” goes all-in on the space younglings. The kids, including the son of Idris Elba’s deceased Asgardian gatekeeper, Heimdall, get kidnapped by Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), leaving Thor and the Mighty Thor to embark on a rescue mission. For Portman, at least, it’s one that saw her getting in touch with her memories as a child actor and as a person short of stature — but not talent.

Next up for Portman is the Apple TV+ series “Lady in the Lake.” “Thor: Love and Thunder” is in theaters now.