Judging only from this clip, what religion is Natalie Portman?
Bonus point question:
What nation was she born in?
If you didn't get it and don't mind lowering yourself to the level of dog drool by cheating and thus shredding any last vestige of self-respect, highlight the following line with the mouse for a clue:
Clue:
turn your speakers up
Answers:
A. Jewish
B. Israel
The tip-off is the 'k' sound she adds to the end of "smashing", pronouncing it "smashingk". This linguistic oddity tends to be a Jewish trait, as evidenced in the videos below.
The first time I watched the above movie Thor and heard her pronounce it that way, I hit the Pause button, dashed over to Wikipedia and, sure enough, she was born to a Jewish family in Israel. Out of curiosity, I then watched the two other Portman movies in my collection, 'The Professional' and 'V For Vendetta', and not once did she add the 'k' sound. My guess is that in studying to be an actress she's taken vocal lessons and pretty much gotten rid of it for her 'acting voice', but probably still does it on her own time — and that one little line just snuck on by.
I'd note that Russians also tend to do this when speaking English, but, as far as the bonus point question goes, if the choice is between Russia and Israel, from her looks there's no question it's the latter. She doesn't look Russian in the slightest; wrong cheekbones and nose. And it would be a good guess she's foreign-born, as linguistic oddities like this usually get drilled out of American-born kids at a fairly early age.
As for other famous 'k' users, I can think of two. The queen would have to be Zsa Zsa Gabor, she of the famous Dahlink!, born to a Jewish family in Hungary. Here's Dame Edna (Australia's answer to Barbara Walters) commenting on it:
And that brings us to the hottest Jewess to ever grace the TV screen, Fran Drescher in The Nanny. Under the heading "Don't get me started", don't get me started. I could write for hours about this wonderful show.
To highlight just two things:
— Running for six years through the mid-90's, this show represents the end of a television era, when anyone was fair game. They mocked Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Zoroastrians, blacks, gays, Democratic presidents (Clinton), their fellow Hollywood actors, and any other subject you'd care to name that would be untouchable by today's politically-correct standards.
— It wouldn't surprise me to find out the mid-90's were the height of Anglo-Judaic relations in America, and — like around the world — has been steadily declining ever since. Certainly anyone watching this particular show came away with the impression that Jewish families, while quirky, were wonderfully warm and sensitive and caring, and that Jewish people have a brilliance and pragmatism that often gets right to the heart of the matter. While they constantly made Fran out to be naive...
Mr. Sheffield: "Miss Fine, I've just had an epiphany."
Fran: "Oh, those can be painful! Do you want some ice for it?"
...it was done because she came from the sheltered world-within-a-world of Queens, NY. But, as the show loved to prove, it was her Jewish 'street smarts' that usually extricated them from the latest dilemma with three minutes to spare.
Here's our saucy Jewess pronouncingk the words "charmingk", "thinkingk", "goingk", "wrongk" and "meetingk". The "meetingk" is particularly revealing because it shows this isn't just some verbal tic that happens at the end of a sentence, but something truly ingrained into the lexicon.
Yes, that was Eric Estrada, he of the 1000-watt smile. No, that's not her real voice.
Did you catch the quick little glance she gave us at the very end? They didn't do it often, maybe once a show, and only Fran did it. Just a quick shout-out to the audience to let us know we weren't forgotten. The show was marvelously done on a number of levels.
The first three seasons are available on Netflix. Why they haven't released the last three seasons for a show that aired almost twenty years ago is anybody's guess, but this weirdness happens all the time. I bought the whole set years ago from some fearless pirate up in Canada, so it's around.
Well, be
seeingk you!