Natalie Portman Getting Oscar Buzz For 'Jackie'

Her mesmerising performance in political biopic Jackie has thrown her into the Oscars race, but there’s more to Natalie Portman than Hollywood success. Here, she talks pay gaps, presidents and why she’s proud to be an activist.

- Mickey Rapkin

In early November, two days after Donald Trump is named president-elect of the United States, the mood in Los Angeles is… strange. Traffic is light. Voices are low. This is an unlikely morning to meet anyone for the first time, let alone Natalie Portman, and I’m not surprised when she tells me she tried to cancel. She’s straining to describe the feeling in town today. ‘Someone said to me that it felt like it had snowed in LA.’ I don’t ask who she voted for, but I have a pretty good guess – she’s just finished a hike with a girlfriend whose tank top reads: ‘The future is female.’ Hallelujah!

It’s fitting that we’re meeting to talk about Jackie – a stirring, poignant film about Jackie Kennedy set in the week following JFK’s assassination – because at its core, this is the story of a nation mourning a dream. Directed by Chilean Pablo Larraín, Jackie premiered to standing ovations at the Venice Film Festival in September, catapulting its star into the Oscars race. While Portman certainly looks and sounds the part, what’s so remarkable about her performance is its humanity.

Jackie is centred around an interview the first lady gave with a reporter for Life magazine one week after her husband’s death. In a clip that will surely be played at every awards show, ‘Jackie’ gives a moment-by-moment account of the assassination, revealing details like how beautiful Jack’s eyes and mouth looked even as he slumped over into her lap. As Jackie, Portman pauses to light a cigarette, regaining her composure as she coolly stares down the reporter, commanding: ‘Don’t think for one second I’m going to let you publish that.’