The Hollywood superstar opens up about juggling her many roles, motherhood, and her new film, May December
By James Mottram
Natalie Portman
THE CLOCK HAS just passed noon, but Natalie Portman is looking like she’s just swanned in from a chic evening gala. The elegant actress is wearing a loose-fitting black trouser suit. We’re meeting in May, at the world’s most famous film festival, long before the SAGAFTRA union has called on its acting community to strike against the studios. Portman has graced the famous Palais steps before—notably that arresting moment when she stepped out for 2005’s Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith with her head shaved.
Her brown locks grown back out, today is something special. The Israeli-born American star is here with May December, the new film from the esteemed director Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven). Not only does she co-star with the luminous Julianne Moore in a complex but compelling yarn about identity, creativity and the vampiric nature of acting, but it also marks the first film she’s produced for her company MountainA, alongside producing partner Sophie Mas. When they found out they were going to play in competition in Cannes, they were jubilant. “We did a big dance,” she smiles.
Now 42, it’s easy to forget that the fresh-faced Portman has been in the business for three decades. It was 1994 when she starred as the young protégé of a hired assassin in Léon, opposite Jean Reno. She was 12 at the time, but it was such a knockout performance, everyone wanted a piece of her. Woody Allen cast her in his musical Everyone Says I Love You. Michael Mann turned to her to play the suicidal daughter of Al Pacino’s cop in crime classic Heat. And Tim Burton booked her for his alien comedy Mars Attacks! And then what did she do? Take time out to get a degree in psychology from Harvard.
For years, Portman has resisted going behind the camera to produce, but she felt it was time. “It’s like a whole new world to learn,” she says. “Obviously, having 30 years of [the] work experience I’ve had informs it, but you get a whole new appreciation for what goes on, just to push the movie—or series—up the hill.” Fortunately, in the case of May December, it all slotted into place. “Todd is just such a dream. He’s so organised, prepared, such a great leader. It’s one of those projects where everything really flows, which is a joy, because more often, it’s quite the contrary.”
In the film, Portman plays Elizabeth Berry, an acclaimed actress who has arrived
