Natalie Portman on challenges of combining motherhood and career

Natalie Portman says her job makes rituals in family life hard.

The 35-year-old actress – who has five-year-old son Aleph with her husband Benjamin Millepied – finds it challenging trying to fit in the school run, cooking and play time with her little boy, whilst organizing a place that is suitable for her son to stay while she is on location shooting movies.

In an interview with The New York Times magazine, she said: "I will never have the boredom or repetitiveness of an office.

"But every job takes me to a new place with a new schedule, and it requires a reinvention of ritual each time, even more so with a family.

"Every time I go on location, I have to figure out where to live, what activities are available for my son, how and when we will travel from our home base.

"When I’m not working. I’m pretty much exclusively with my family, so my rituals have to do with school, meal preparation, playdates, bedtime."

Meanwhile, the ‘Black Swan’ star also revealed she loved working with so many "talented" female actresses on her new movie ‘Annihilation’, because films are usually full of men.

Speaking of her co-stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gina Rodriguez, she said: "I’m working with a group of actresses right now who are so kind and talented and funny. We did a scene last night, all night, in which every take was different, and each one real, and we laughed and froze our asses off and played.

"It was rare energy on a film because there were so many women together. Usually it’s all men and each of us is the only woman."