Natalie Portman researched her family's history through the holocaust to prepare herself for her role in V for Vendetta.

The 24-year-old researched the experiences of her grandparents' family online in order to be in the right frame of mind for the scenes of torture in V for Vendetta.

She is quoted on Contactmusic.com, revealing what she discovered: "Fortunately my grandparents escaped, but their whole family perished in the Holocaust. There were stories in the house of what had happened to them and it wasn't that much talked about.

"I had to go on a website to read my grandfather's descriptions of what happened to the family, but it is absolutely something I have lived with and have grown up with.

"I loved that this film is an abstract thing because, after the Holocaust, people said it would never happen again, but now we have Rwanda and Bosnia. Maybe V For Vendetta can remind us to stand up against such despotism."