DATELINE HOLLYWOOD
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman has transformed herself from a child star into an Oscar winner
Danny Bowman talks to her about a career before and behind the camera
From child star to Oscar winner, we have watched the maturing talent that is Natalie Portman become a woman on the silver screen. Now a mother and director, she is testament to the truth that learning is the one thing you should never stop doing. Her career has ranged from the troubled but tough trainee assassin Mathilda in Léon: The
Professional when she was only 12 to anarchist
Evey in V for Vendetta, a psychologically tortured dancer in Black Swan and of course, Padme Amidala in Star Wars and so much more.
Natalie has seen more of Hollywood than most of her peers because there’s something about her that film directors love – elegance, beauty and youthful innocence.
When Portman embarked on her own directorial career in 2015 upon releasing her debut
– A Tale of Love and Darkness, based on Amos
Oz’s biography of the same name – it painted another layer of creative quality on a career that has already offered so much.
“I knew I wanted to direct one day like I knew
I wanted to be an actor and a mother,” she says.
“It has been a logical progression and I will always be grateful to have had these opportunities because I realise there are many very talented people out there who don’t get the breaks.”
Portman adds: “It is an industry that revolves around sliding doors – you have to be in the right place at the right time. I decided a while ago that to give myself the best chance of succeeding, I had to take any opportunity to learn, seek out the good stories and keep talking with as many in the industry as I could. You’ve got to stay in it to stay relevant.”
Mother to Aleph and Amalia, the actress has always been uncompromising in her vision with a healthy disregard for the more fickle aspects of fame. She famously scaled back her blockbuster film career to attend Harvard University, earning a degree in psychology. At the time, she told The New York Post: “I don’t care if college ruins my career. I’d rather be smart than a movie star.”
Yet, acting was without doubt young Natalie’s first love, working consistently but striking that fragile balance between blockbuster monsters such as Star Wars and quieter indie gems like
Garden State or Closer.
Now, she looks forward to her new film Lucy in the Sky – a Fox Searchlight project currently in post-production. The film tells the story of
Lucy Cola, an astronaut who upon returning to
Earth following a life changing mission struggles to reacclimatise to the normality of the world.
In Lucy in the Sky, there are echoes of Planetarium – her supernatural drama from 2016 in which she co-starred with Lily-Rose Depp (although this time, the actress isn’t being tasked with speaking French throughout).
“There needs to be a challenge in each new project,” she remarks. “Speaking French was an interesting challenge but now it’s a language and culture I’ve come to think of as my own anyway. This time, I’m happy simply to deal with elements of zero gravity and mental health.”
Portman’s French connection has been strong and she now lives in Paris. “Like many people, especially Americans, I’ve always had a dream of maybe one day living here,” she says with a smile.
Certainly, the most romantic of cities feels a world away from the exaggerated rampancy of the Hollywood machine but even at a distance, she hasn’t been immune to the sexism that has blighted the film industry.
During her talk at the Toronto Film Festival in 2016, she spoke at length about the relentless stereotyping and various tropes she’d encountered including the ‘manic pixie dream girl.’ Here, a quirky and unpredictable female is introduced into the script purely as a device to emancipate the male lead from his tedious life.
Portman’s character in Garden State was a good example of this. “They wanted a young woman who had intelligence and maturity beyond her years… but who still looked like a nubile young woman. It’s a problem,” she sighs.
She also credits the paucity of female directors in North America to a cultural phenomenon. “It’s not that way in France,” she reveals, of her new base. However, she’s also cautiously optimistic about change: “It’s important that more people are talking about this issue because the conversation is pushing studios to hire more women.”
Though Natalie is coy about when she’ll assume the director’s chair, her ability to touch every film genre, to operate as a sounding board for the issues that attach themselves to the movie world whilst still relishing and revelling in the romance of film, means every new dawn for Portman is the most exciting. “Moving forward is actually about moving in new directions – and if I can continue to do that, I’ll be happy,” she affirms.