HOLLYWOOD – If you log on to Twitter, specifically the subset of “Film Twitter,” you’ll find all sorts of fandoms bickering and supporting one another. For every “Release The Snyder Cut” champion there is an Amy Adams stan somewhere else bemoaning the fact she has lost another award. One of the more entertaining subsets of this subset are the Natalie Portman fans. They are everywhere and they are legion. Want to discuss the Oscars? Get ready for a Portman stan to remind you she got robbed of her second Academy Award for “Jackie” or that her performance in “Vox Lux” was more realistic than Lady Gaga’s in “A Star is Born.” When this phenomenon was explained to Portman during an interview for her new film “Lucy in the Sky” her reaction was of genuine surprise.
“That’s so nice. I was not aware,” Portman says. “That’s very nice. I’m flattered.”
And while she does have a public account on Instagram she’s purposefully not on twitter noting, “I think I get so worked up politically and I know that can only exacerbate the situation. I feel like I have my news sources. I read my news every day. I just don’t want an every second update.”
It looks like Portman stans may find themselves championing another already underappreciated turn by the “Black Swan” star in Noah Hawley’s feature directorial debut. It’s another rich role centered on an astronaut (Portman) who spirals out of control following an affair with a colleague (Jon Hamm) and a blind obsession with returning to space.
“It’s wonderful to get out of ingenue land, for sure. It’s the time of my life where if it’s going to be about a woman, it’s going to be about her going through interesting stuff,” Portman says of her recent slate of films. “When stuff comes in, I’m drawn more to projects that are challenging, that are worth me leaving my own life to go get into.”
The role landed in Portman’s lap after the film’s original lead, Reese Witherspoon, had to drop out after a scheduling conflict with the second season of HBO’s “Big Little Lies.” Witherspoon remained on board as a producer.
“Reese is a very close friend and someone I admire, enormously, too,” Portman says. “I felt so lucky to get this script that she had developed for herself. I feel like she’s great at developing material in general. She’s so good with character and story. But then, especially when they’re going to it themselves, it’s like a next level seriousness. So, I received this script that was extraordinary. Just such an unusual female character to get to play. Noah’s someone I’ve admired so much from ‘Fargo’ and ‘Legion.’ I just think he’s a really special mind. Then meeting him and hearing his take on it just became clear.”
Hawley’s screenplay is inspired by the events surrounding Lisa Nowak, a NASA astronaut who was arrested after attempting to kidnap another astronaut. Both women were involved romantically with the same male astronaut. Portman says she read about Caputo’s misdeeds, but “Lucy” was never about telling her specific story. She notes, “It was always a jumping-off point for asking the question, ‘How does someone who’s so high functioning, successful, high performing unravel spectacularly? What goes into that? Especially with this question of facing existence, the infinity, the abyss? How does that experience change you?’ Which is not a very common question we get to see women face on screen. An existential kind of question. Also, not usually the focus of space movies. Space movies usually are about the time in space, not about when you get home. Those two things felt very unique.”
Sadly, Portman did not get to undergo NASA training (“I would have loved to have done it. Not for the thrill of it, but just to experience weightlessness is so incredible”) but maybe there will be time for that when she preps for her surprising return to the MCU in “Thor: Love and Thunder” (and, no, there’s nothing to add there, she knows about as much about the movie as you do). And while production on that Marvel feature is a long way off (it isn’t set for release until Nov. 5, 2021), I wondered how the politically active Portman was keeping herself focused in these times where major news seems to break every few moments. For context, on the day of our interview, the Speaker of the House had just announced there would be an impeachment inquiry into the President of the United States.
“Having kids, I always feel like I need to have my phone for them in case they need me for any reason. I try and limit it to that,” Portman says. “I do a crossword every morning. I usually run or take a walk every day. I was just talking about that with Noah, how Mike Nichols used to say to me that, ‘Every day after doing all your stuff, you got to stare at the wall for an hour.’ We’ve lost the literally doing nothing [thing], letting your brain completely rest. There are no in-between moments and those are the most important for creativity. So, I try to cultivate that.”
And then with a smile, she adds, “I’m not always successful.”
“Lucy in the Sky” opens in limited release on Oct. 4.
