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Natalie Portman on playing complex women characters
Brut America
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5/22/2023
"There's a historical oversimplification of women in cinema."
Natalie Portman gets candid with Brut's Augustin Trapenard about how she prepares to play complex characters during the promotion of her film "May December" at the Festival de Cannes.
#Cannes2023
Category
🎥
Short film
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
If you could change one thing in your past, what would you change?
00:07
Wow, that's a great question. I don't know. I try not to think about, like, changing things
00:14
because you can't. So it seems like a frustrating exercise.
00:19
What struck me in May-December is the complexity of the characters in the film, and especially
00:22
the women characters, who are psychologically, morally ambiguous all the way. How rare is
00:28
it in movies, Natalie?
00:30
It's incredible to get the opportunity to play characters in their full humanity. And
00:36
I think the more variety we see of how women can behave, the more possibility there is
00:42
and the more acceptance of women as humans.
00:45
But is there a lack in cinema of that kind of complexity for women?
00:48
I think that, yes, there's a historical, you know, oversimplification, absolutely. And
00:56
it's exciting to be at a moment in storytelling that feels like it's allowing, first of all,
01:03
more voices, more voices that are reflective of society to tell the stories, but then also
01:09
to have those stories be complex, human.
01:12
How is your French?
01:13
It's okay.
01:14
You don't speak French?
01:15
I do, but I'm shy about it.
01:18
So in May-December, you're an actress preparing for a role. What do you need to create a character?
01:24
How do you process?
01:26
I usually do whatever research I can. Of course, if there's, you know, if I'm playing Jackie
01:32
Kennedy, there's so much to dig into historical film, audio recordings, books.
01:40
But you've got notes every time?
01:42
I do have notes. I do have notes. I mean, sometimes they're my notes of imagination
01:48
that are based off of the script, and sometimes they're, you know, full of extreme research.
01:53
So the film is very much about confronting one's past and how difficult it is. And I
01:56
remember this sentence from your character,
01:58
Sometimes I feel the weight of the past.
02:01
A beautiful sentence. Do you sometimes feel the weight of the past?
02:05
Yeah, I think probably everyone who's lived a certain amount of time does at a certain
02:11
point that that's part of what defines you and part of what is your, part of your identity.
02:17
But it's interesting for you because a lot of your past is literally on screen. You've
02:22
been an actress for so long, you can literally watch on film 30 years of growing up.
02:27
Yes, absolutely. It's definitely surreal to have this kind of external memory, along with
02:35
my internal, of course, experience and memory, internal experience of what I've lived. And
02:41
I always think that, you know, now young people are living the same thing that I lived. Everyone
02:49
is, because social media, everything's captured of your life the whole way. It's a completely
02:56
different way for a whole generation to grow up.
02:58
And on that point precisely, it's pretty difficult for your character in the film to draw a line
03:03
between fiction and real life. How is it for the actress that you are?
03:08
Well, I think that it's a question that I'm obsessed with is performance and, you know,
03:15
how we perform in our lives, how we perform our social roles, how we perform, you know,
03:21
different aspects of ourselves with different people and how we even perform with ourselves.
03:25
I mean, I think that's so strong in the movie with the mirrors, the camera as a mirror,
03:30
the camera as reflecting our innermost self or our performance of self. And that's just
03:38
something I loved about this piece because it really asks a lot of those questions.
03:43
You're an actor, Natalie, but you're also a producer now. What kind of power does it
03:47
give you, especially in storytelling?
03:49
It's so exciting to get to produce and to be able to nurture and support talent to create
03:56
their artistic visions. And it's been really incredible to also foster the kind of storytelling
04:02
I want to make.
04:04
And five years ago, you were an advocate for a revolution of desire in the film industry.
04:09
To what extent are you happy with how things have evolved now?
04:13
I think that the conversation has been going on strong, so I'm very happy that it's part
04:22
of the conversation constantly. But we obviously have a very far way to go still to get to
04:27
true revolution.
04:29
That's right. We talk a lot about Me Too, but we have forgotten about the Time's Up
04:33
movement, for which you really fought at the time. Stepping back, what did you find exciting
04:38
in this movement specifically?
04:40
I think the community of women, to be in community with so many women in our industry was really
04:48
incredible in terms of as a support and as a power force was just extraordinary. And
04:57
to be able to share experience and to be able to fight together to try and get ourselves
05:04
better valued was really extraordinary.
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