Los Angeles, Dec 29 (IANS): ‘Black Swan’ actress Natalie Portman believes that acting and Psychology are “very similar”. The actress took a break from her career to pursue a degree in Psychology from Harvard University.

She thinks it helped her work because doing both successfully involves being “observant”, reports Female First UK.

Asked if her degree has been useful in her work, she told Radio Times magazine: “I think it’s very similar – in acting you’re trying to imagine why people do the things they do and what forms them. Psychology is very much the same practice. The first thing they teach is observing – it’s watching people, noticing patterns, behaviour.”

As per Female First UK, in ‘May December’, Natalie plays Elizabeth, an actress preparing to play a real-life figure and she admitted playing someone based on a real person can feel “vampiric”, even when she is trying to be empathetic.

She said: “That’s a classic trope of literature and theatre. You read Chekhov, and he’s questioning whether storytelling is stealing from people’s lives. “I think every artist with a heart and soul questions themselves.”

She added, “Am I stealing from real people to feed my art – like a vampire? It can be vampiric, but I think you can approach it in a way that’s more generous, more about empathy and trying to imagine someone’s life, as opposed to trying to steal someone’s life”.

The 42-year-old actress made her movie debut in ‘Leon’ when she was 12 and had her first Broadway role four years later in ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and she enjoys working on stage and screen in different ways.

She said: “They’re both different in their own ways – it’s pottery and painting. I had an amazing experience on ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. It really changed my whole life and changed me as a person. But film is also satisfying to work in. You reach wider audiences.”