This has to be something of a déjà vu experience for Natalie Portman. Six years ago she rode a cascade of rapturous reviews from the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” Fox Searchlight quickly scooped up the rights to the drama and Portman went on to win one award season honor after another including, most importantly, her first Best Actress Oscar. Last month “Jackie,” produced by Aronofsky, debuted at Venice to similar accolades. Fox Searchlight, which had rights of first refusal on the film, jumped in for another late awards run and now many believe Portman could duplicate her 2011 feat this February. Will history repeat it self?
An unexpected artistic achievement from director Pablo Larrain (Foreign Language Film contender “Neruda”), “Jackie” finds Portman portraying former First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the days leading up to and after her husband’s assassination in 1963. Portman circled the project for years (Rachel Weisz was attached to star with Aronofsky directing at one point), but even though she felt screenwriter Noah Oppenheim’s script was “remarkable” she realized finding someone as talented as Larrain to helm it was key.
Speaking to The Playlist from New York, Portman noted, “I knew it would take a very specific director to bring it into an unconventional way of storytelling because, y’know, we’ve kind of exhausted the biopic format. Of course, this was not structured as a real, conventional biopic. It’s sort of structured as this slice of life in a short period. [Larrain’s] approach what is really interested in me.”
READ MORE: Natalie Portman Is Better Than Ever In Pablo Larrain’s Kennedy Biopic ‘Jackie’ [Review]
The role requires Portman to convey both the public and private side of a woman whose resolve was tested in the days immediately following her husband’s death. One of her primary sources of research for the role was the televised special “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy” which is partially replicated in the film itself.
“The most helpful book was the transcripts of the interviews she did with Arthur Schlesinger that came with the audio tapes,” Portman says. “So, I could read it and listen to it at the same time and hear her cadences and voice and accent. Her voice was quite different when she was speaking privately.”
She describes shooting as “really full on” and similar to the demands “Black Swan” placed on her. But, luckily, the film shot in Paris because Larrain needed to be there for personal reasons (it also didn’t hurt that’s also where she was living with her husband).
“They only work about eight hours a day there so it was actually quite civilized,” Portman says. “It was intense work [but] you went home for dinner every night which was kind of wonderful.”
Filming in France also meant the production was lucky enough to work with below the line talents such as costumer Madeline Fontaine, a longtime collaborator of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Amelie,” “A Very Long Engagement”). And it goes without saying that the perfect wardrobe was essential for anyone attempting to bring a style icon like Jackie Kennedy to life.
“Madeline was amazing,” Portman says. “She really has such an eye and really created amazing costumes which some of them were both exact replicas of historical costumes and some of them were imagined costumed of what she was wearing in her private time. And all of them were completely right on with the character. I had never worked with her before and It was really lucky in the end because the artisan ship both for costumes and production design are really things that are hard to find in the world right now. To find people who could recreate the White House. Make a couture gown. That kind of only exists in France now.”
It’s unclear if any of Jackie Kennedy’s relatives or anyone in the larger Kennedy family has screened “Jackie” yet, but Portman is cognizant that watching the film may not be easy for them.
READ MORE: Natalie Portman Shines In First Trailer For Pablo Larrain’s ‘Jackie’
“I have great reverence for them and respect,” Portman says. “I can only imagine it’s very painful to deal with this period and I only hope it too painful for them to [relive it] because that’s the last thing you want when you’re making something is to hurt anyone.”
In case you’re curious, Portman falls in line with the group of actors who really prefer to watch their performances once (if even that).
“I really don’t like seeing myself on screen,” Portman says laughing. “I saw it once at Venice. It’s too hard for me not to watch it at all, but then I Just see it once. Actually, I think I have so much admiration what Pablo did with the film and to hear the score for the first time which I think is really unbelievable. It is really just incredible and to see what the other actors did. I had enough other things to focus on that I could still enjoy it a little bit.”
Portman will be taking some time off the awards season circuit over the next few weeks to film a role in Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.” She’ll play the mother of an 11-year-old boy who begins corresponding with a well-known movie star played by Kit Harrington. Why take on the part while currently pregnant with her second child and in the middle of a major Oscar campaign? For the 35-year-old actress the answer is easy.
“Well, it’s a very moving role and I really love Xavier,” Portman says. “He’s really just an incredible voice and I think he has a completely new way of shooting.”
“Jackie” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 2.