Here are some assorted photos of Natalie Portman last week, in Paris and New York. In Paris (the black dress photos), she premiered Jane Got a Gun, the clusterwhoops film which Portman stars in and produced. In New York (the red coat-dress photos), she premiered A Tale of Love and Darkness, the film which she directed, produced and stars in. Both looks in these photos – the coat and the black gown – are Dior. I love the black gown (truly, it’s stunning) but I can’t stand the red coat. The red is too orange-y and the scalloped hem is twee.
Anyway, Portman has been making the media rounds to promote her two movies, neither or which will make any money at all. JGAG actually opened this weekend and it made… $803,000. While the release wasn’t, like, Star Wars-level, it still opened in more than 1200 theaters. But very few people saw it. Because no one really cared about seeing Natalie Portman pretend to be a Wild West gunslinger in a film that had one of the most traumatized productions in the past decade. So… should we give her credit for trying? Meh. I give her some credit for going out there and shilling her movie, even though she knew it was going to bomb. She shilled so hard, she even spoke to Page Six about how she’s an “average everyday Jewish mother.”
How she prepared to play a Wild West gunslinger: “I knew nothing. I was sent a script. I’d never read anything like this feminist story about a woman in those old days, making her way in the unforgiving, tough Wild West. Toting a rifle, husband riddled with bullets, shooting bad guys, baking bread, washing children, surviving. I did research. I took a crash course. I studied books. Read diaries. But there were so many obstacles. We lost the director early on. Actors changed. We suffered financial and legal challenges. We endured so many replacements. There were delays. The weather was unforgiving. Sandstorms. Rains in April. That’s why I, just basically your average everyday Jewish mother, would go around asking everyone, ‘You OK? . . . You all right?’ I have a child. I know what it’s like to care for a baby. But to do that with the civilization’s surrounding toughness, to make that journey and survive it. That’s the story.”
I chuckled at “rains in April.” Like, OMG, who would have ever thought that it would rain in APRIL in the Northern Hemisphere? What is this? SPRING?! Next she’ll say that it snowed in January! I felt the same way about Leonardo DiCaprio’s conversation about the conditions while shooting The Revenant – like, he was shocked that there was a spring thaw and that it started getting warmer in April/May.
As for Portman… well, I hope she learned a lot from this process. I kind of think they should have just called it a day with Jane Got a Gun when directors and actors were fleeing the production. Just write it off and call it a day. And I still don’t know why Portman forced the issue and why she was so hellbent on making the film. If Angelina Jolie had made these moves, people would be using words like “ego bath” and “narcissism.”
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I will say it. Her ego took a long bath with some Calgon “Narcissism” scented bath beads. Ugh. Can’t stand her.
Same.
I don’t know why I find her so irritating, but I do.
Why so irritating? because of things like ” I’d never read anything like this feminist story about a woman in those old days, making her way in the unforgiving, tough Wild West. ” That pretty much is the story of almost every pioneer woman out there. There are thousands of stories like that, many heroic but to them it was just living and surviving. Just because you Natalie (I won’t say discovered) read it, it doesn’t make you special.
And oh god… you had a child so now you are mother to the world. Can’t stand her. Girl does clean up nice though.
@islandwalker Isn’t that the case, though, with all celebrities and narcissistic types in general. They have a baby, and so they invented motherhood. And no motherhood is like their level of motherhood. They read about something, and the fact that THEY read it makes it significant and important.
Agreed
@ KRI loved your comment, precisely what I think.
I’ll say it with you!
I do find her SO pretentious. and who’s she holding hands with? that’s her co-star, not her hubs, right?
LOL. Calgon, take her away!
-TheRealPinky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQrpV35yINo
Don’t like Natalie Portman, but I do like what she’s wearing. Even the coat
I haven’t even seen an ad for JGAG. Where the heck have I been? I didnt even know it was out already. I have to say, reading her explanation on what the film is about, a woman fighting the elements and the wild west back in the day, kind of makes me want to see it.
I saw a preview the other night when I went to see another movie, and was surprised that not only did I not hate the preview, I was mildly interested in seeing the movie. So, who knows?
Good for her that she’s directing and producing. There’s a huge dearth of female talent behind the scenes in Hollywood, and there are still so few female-led and feminist movies. Portman is a hero for working so hard to create female-led work in such a macho, sexist industry.
Unfortunately it probably failed because there’s not much of a market for feminist Westerns, and because there was zero PR. You can make the best product in the world but if you don’t have PR and you don’t have the ‘right’ people supporting you, it won’t be a success. Hollywood is so intensely sexist and patriarchal, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d buried it and spread those silly fake stories about Portman being a “bitch” to try to damage the movie. There’s a TON of resistance to female-led work in Hollywood, I’ve seen it first hand.
Don’t get the comment about how she should have ditched the movie. She may not legally or ethically have been in a position to do so.
Yeah, I agree. I don’t see that she was at a point then that she could have ditched it then.
The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 50 percent liked it. Critics rated it lower. I’ve watched movies on Netflix that had a much lower audience approval rating. So it’s not a terrible movie, and some seemed to like it. So it’s an average, so-so movie. I applaud her for pushing through in the face of it all.
Shoot, Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings got lower critic ratings and even much lower audience score approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
What do we read about over and over on this site-support female/directors/producers. For sure- but then it’s evidently only certain ones. I can certainly appreciate that Natalie is not everyone’s cup of tea, but you have to
start somewhere. She is putting out a movie that is not a comic book sequel and is female centric. I give her credit for sticking with it-clearly, it meant something to her.
@Tig, oh it’s definitely only certain ones. When Natalie was directing her first film, folks here were already dismissing it as garbage. A day or two prior people were complaining how difficult it is for women to break into directing, and how it’s our duty to support them.. Oh, the irony. The complaints also went on to trash Portman – who does she think she is to make a film in Israel (an Israeli), and how foolish to film in Hebrew (a language of Israel). The film is based on a book that’s set in the early days of Israel. I didn’t get the criticism. At all.
I actually want to see it–and I can’t stand Natalie, but it looks like a really interesting movie to me. Unfortunately it’s not showing in my area, and I had no idea it was out!
I think the PR might be less because it’s being released in January/February (a time the studios commit to for the movies they have less faith in). At the same time, I think this time period might be favourable for her because the movie isn’t being released against the heavy hitters during their opening weekends.
Good points, Fluff.
She didn’t direct. Gavin O’Connor did. She produced.
I doupt the film got advertized much so no suprised it did not make any more money.
I imagine they went ahead with the production because of insurance. It fell apart on the first day of shooting, which means everyone’s contracts are in full effect, and the payouts on shutting down a production are enormous. JGAG won’t make any money, but even then, it’s better to write it off as a loss than submit to paying out the insurance cancellation clauses. At work we had to scrap a commercial recently because the product company declared bankruptcy and we’ll be in court for years trying to get the insurance money back. It’s a nightmare, and that’s a $300,000 commercial. It would be exponentially worse for a movie with a $25,000,000 budget.
I think you’re right
Good points.
She’s one of those people that just looking at her irritates me – its irrational so i can’t explain. After her Oscar win her ego got so big she fancied herself as Angie J Part Deux and wants to prove herself a talent behind the camera. She not at talent at either – by all accounts she was a demon to work with on JGAG as it was a pure vanity project for her and her friends, many of whom had no experience in the industry.
Re: going forward with the production. Due to contractual obligations they very likely had no choice, it was probably cheaper than cancelling and getting shafted by the insurers.
She should have picked an easier project as her first foray into the actor/producer/director world and then worked up to this one. The plot sounds like a good movie and would have prob been more successful if directed/produced by someone who knew what they were doing.
I agree that Hollywood is sexist as all get out and props to Portman for trying but I think that Jane Got a Gun looked uninteresting and was destined to fail after the horrible behind the scenes trouble. Fantastic Four was directed and starring a white guy, had horrible behind the scenes troubles and flopped as well.
Portman is pretentious, self-absorbed and out of touch, but that’s not new news.
More to the point: what has happened to her face? I barely recognised her in these pictures. She looked about 17 for years and years, and now suddenly she seems to have aged overnight. Has she had (bad) work done, or has she just gone through an ‘ageing spurt’?
In both pictures, I think the hairstyles age her.
Her new style has aged her and i wouldnt be surprised if she got work done. She’s lived in Paris for the last few years and most woman there tend to have little nicks and tucks. She’s morphing into Winona Ryder.
Winona Ryder looks fantastic. She’d be lucky to look like her.
You’re right. She does look like Winona – and the black lace emphasises it!
I think it’s more than just a new hairstyle though – something has changed in her face. She doesn’t look bad, just very different. At first I thought motherhood had changed her looks – that does happen sometimes – but her son must be 4 or 5 now, and the change is recent. So it can’t be that. I’ve never liked Portman as an actress or as a person, but I do think she had one of the most classically perfect faces in Hollywood. I say had, because she looks like a different person here.
I can’t decided if she’s had something done to her nose or around her eyes but its noticeable – she looks different.
I agree she had a old school classic HW face – it was ageless, she always looked younger than she was.
I thought her nose looked a little bit more “whittled away”, myself.
I saw her photos on another blog and I was shocked how much older she looks but I think it’s because she’s very thin now. Her face has lost its roundness.
Honest question – does anyone care about Natalie Portman?
In the public at large, I don’t really think so, which is probably why she evades the descriptors that Angelina Jolie gets stuck with (i.e from the above post ” If Angelina Jolie had made these moves, people would be using words like “ego bath” and “narcissism.”)
She’s always struck me as pretty annoying, but maybe nobody cares enough about her to find my irritation with her rational. People who do like her do seem to find her graceful, intelligent, etc. so maybe that’s why making fun of her isn’t allowed? She is really pretty though — even I can’t deny that.
I like her in movies. She’s a good actress who can emotionally connect to a role and the camera loves her face. I don’t care about her outside of her film roles and don’t find her interviews interesting. But good for her in developing movies.
No! She’s boring!
Well to be fair she hasn’t been out there over sharing her family to sell her movie. What is a Jewish Mother? Is there a difference between a regular mother and a Jewish mother? I don’t understand.
@Maggie, there can sometimes be a stereotype re: Jewish mothers that they are very overbearing and can be extremely doting…almost to a fault. One of the more negative aspects that can sometimes spring from this stereotype is that it is believed Jewish mothers tend to use a lot of guilt when parenting their kids, especially when they want them to do something– frequently referred to as ” Jewish guilt”.
I am Jewish and so is my mom. The majority of my relatives are 100% Jewish. And I can honestly say that over the last 30-something years I have found little difference in the way my mom/other relatives parent as opposed to mothers who are not of the Jewish faith. In my personal experiences I have found most parenting styles come down to the mom/dad’s personal experiences and who they are as a human being, not necessarily the cultural beliefs they may or may not hold. I believe culture/religion can sometimes play a role to a certain extent in parenting style, but it does not 100% determine the type of parent a woman (or man ) ultimately is.
You know what? She irks me but I hate that so many people are just writing her off completely. She got to a dangerous age for women in Hollywood and she went out there and created her own projects. She got them made. She is getting into directing and producing and she is putting female-centric stories on the screen. So good on her!!!!! I wish more women with a bit of power would do this. No, they may not make any money; but at least she’s trying to change the status quo and is giving it a red hot go!!
I’m not writing her off. I just find her annoying. From the time she hit the scene, I figured she was going to have a long career because Hollywood has always seemed intent on making sure she’s a star.
@SKF – That’s how I feel too. Natalie does irk me a tad (not sure why though – maybe because on paper she sounds too perfect? or sometimes too serious?) but I give her kudos for going after projects that interest her and making them happen. But I don’t get the vitriol people have for her. I don’t remember reading anything she has said that I found to be insulting or overly pretentious. At least not like Paltrow who opens her mouth and quickly inserts her foot at every chance she gets.
I think she’s pretentious like Gwyneth Paltrow is, particularly in the way she expresses herself, but is smart enough to keep a lower profile. I think a lot of her quotes indicate that she’s somewhat insulated from real life (although I guess maybe that’s not her fault if that’s all she’s known her whole life).
Yes. The general public doesn’t care about her anymore because she is not a young, single ingenue as she used to be. She is now into her 30’s, married and a mom, which obviously means she is not sexy or desirable anymore. She is not my favourite person but at least she is a bit different than the rest of Hollywood and I respect her for staying true to her values.
I also agree that we shouldn’t being bashing or making fun of movies directed/produced/lead by women, just because we don’t like a certain actress.
I don’t think she or her movie is being bashed (just sounds like the media is noting the difficulties her movie went through in terms of casting — didn’t Fassbender drop out? — and direction. Those simply sound like facts rather than criticisms. Even she herself is noting the difficulties she had in making the movie — she says they endured many delays, replacements, and financial, and legal challenges. ) She gets very slight criticisms –what might be criticized are simply her quote(s) which are usually pretty annoying, and that kind of criticism only happens in blog comment sections, not in the actual mainstream media.
Agree, SKF!! Except that she doesn’t really irk me. Yet.
” I’d never read anything like this feminist story about a woman in those old days, making her way in the unforgiving, tough Wild West.”
I could swear I saw this kind of movie 20 years ago starring Madeleine Stowe, Drew Barrymore and Andie Mc Dowell. It was not particularly stellar but tried the feminist angle in the tough West. So she didn’t exactly introduce the genre to Hollywood.
More recently, Michelle Williams delivered a very poweful performance in Meek’s cutoff. So Ms Portman had never read or heard about stories of women making their way in those times. Ok.
Why is that, even when she does something that could be interesting, she has to make it look as the most groundbreaking thing ever, her research the most thorough ever done?
I think Sharon Stone starred in some kind of Western. Leonardo DiCaprio co-starred in a smaller part where he looked cute and boyish and, uh, not bloated.
The Quick and the Dead–love that movie!
That movie is what made me realize that Sharon Stone is an awful actress.
Another female Western was Bad Girls. It was supposed to be about girl power, but it was more about Drew Barrymore’s unbound breasts, Madeleine Stowe’s romance, and Andie McDowell’s character playing house. Mary Stuart Masterson’s character was the tough frontier woman, but she was the least important character.
Don’t forget Kate Bosworth in that stupefyingly bad movie set in the wild west that was partly a Korean production. She was HORRIBLE.
I know it isn’t really a western, but her comments about “feminist story in those days” reminded me of Cold Mountain. Eh, not sure if it adds much to the conversation…
I thought of Cold Mountain too. I was going to mention it, but then when I looked up facts about the movie I learned it was about the Civil War. Still, the movie did seem reminiscent of what she’s talking about here.
Which is funny, because she’s in Cold Mountain.
How is she as a producer? On this movie, she sounds kind of….disorganized? Or something. I’m not sure.
She sounds like she was in over her head. You’d think a seasoned actress of many years would already know how challenging and unpredictable a shoot can be. Makes me think she spent all her acting years cocooned in her trailer, with nary a clue as to how how the director, producer and crew were working in between filming scenes.
I’m indifferent to Portman. I think she is mediocre in blockbusters but she is okay in some dramas. She can come off as annoying sometimes but so can I.
I can’t hate on her on trying her hand at producing and directing. As long as the media doesn’t call her a great director before she has proven that like they do with Jolie I am fine with it all.
90% of the time Western’s don’t do that great so I don’t get why her first producing gig was a western? She should have done another type of film first.
I don’t think she has the best eye for good scripts. Before Black Swan, didn’t she star in that ridiculous comedy with…..Ashton Kutcher, of all people? Whenever a movie has done well, it’s usually because she worked with the right director (i.e Darren Aronofsky, Mike Nichols) or been in a franchise (i.e Star Wars, Thor). Considering how respected she is in Hollywood, I’ll never understand why she chose to co-star with Ashton in an already dreadful movie, unless she really has no idea how irritating he is as a screen presence or ever heard his speaking voice prior to doing the film.
She’s a woman and I’m guessing she wanted to keep working. Not every lead actress role is going to be a winner – even Meryl Streep gets stuck doing the occasional crappy comedy.
That’s true. But that movie was unusual levels of bad and doesn’t fit at all with the kind of reputation she tries VERY hard to cultivate (she has always wanted to be seen as smarter than the average starlet, highly intellectual, and someone who carries herself with great elegance and Audrey Hepburn grace). Although to be fair, maybe it’s the fact that Ashton Kutcher was her co-star that made me go “why?” It was more the latter I didn’t get – with another co-star in the part I probably would have just thought she was “branching out” into other genres (or something to that effect). But who thinks starring in a movie with Ashton Kutcher is a good idea and is going to lead anywhere? Black Swan saved her.
There are difficulties for actresses, but since she’s always been in the top tier and is still young I don’t think she really HAD to do a movie with Ashton Kutcher to keep on working. She was still only around 27 or so (not 40, when Meryl cited roles drying up for her), and was at that time still being called one of the greats of her generation. And she had good-will from her turn in Closer, and had the nomination to ride off of. This wasn’t right after Star Wars or anything.
I think that almost all younger actresses are stuck in some sort of romantic comedy purgatory at some point. And Kutcher aside, I don’t remember the movie being on the awfulness level of Bride Wars or anything. She’s done a lot of movies that people didn’t see, so I can understand how she ended up in something like that as an attempt to make something more commercially appealing. Not to mention the movies she’d made immediately before that were kind of depressing and I would imagine it would be nice to work on something light occasionally (a la Ralph Fiennes in Maid In Manhattan). I personally think she’s done a lot of interesting stuff, though not all of it ends up working well as a finished product. She’s a top tier actress, but that doesn’t mean that there are a ton of top tier parts to go around every year.
I personally thought the movie was beneath her (or at least what her PR tries to suggest time and time again about her reputation, which veers into hyperbole at times. Maybe her PR presenting her as the next best thing to sliced bread and Audrey Hepburn’s inheritor hurts her more than it helps). Maybe the movie didn’t have the worst script, but Ashton Kutcher’s presence probably made the movie worse than it would have been with another actor. J-Lo is mockable, but at the same time she’s watchable in a movie. Ashton is mockable, but not watchable. J-Lo was also capable of opening box-office during the Maid in Manhattan years. I can’t remember Ashton Kutcher ever being able to open a movie. So that also makes her choice to co-star with him a little odd to me. Anything with him in it is very difficult to watch, unless he has a really large supporting cast like he did on That ’70s Show and he’s stuck on tv. Even if she was good in it (which I don’t think she was), he’s a highly irritating screen presence that can make a mediocre movie become highly unwatchable. I think if you really like Natalie Portman as an actress (which isn’t generally the case for me), then maybe his presence is easier to tolerate. The only thing I find charming about her is her face, but there’s only so long you (general “you”) can stare at her face without getting bored if you don’t like her acting much.
To add: I read that she executive-produced movie, so I guess this is a movie she really believed in? That baffles me even more.
The media is calling Jolie a great director? LOL! I don’t think so.
Portman is a brat and a self righteous hypocrite with minimal talent. But I do think that she’s capable of being a good producer if she can put her ego aside.
Like I said, I think she’s annoying, but after seeing the trailer, I think her new movie doesn’t look nearly as bad as Angelina Jolie’s By The Sea. Not that I really want to sit through either of them, but I think I can see why certain descriptors were used on Jolie when you consider how awful the trailer for the By the Sea seemed. Jane Got a Gun at least seems passable for viewing.
My first thought when I saw the photo of her and her husband was “Why is she holding hands with Ben Affleck?”
That is Joel Eggerton. As a fan, it crushes me you think he looks like Doucefleck. 😉
He’s amazing in THE GIFT! Apparently wrote it, too.
I want to take a bath in whatever is coming off of Joel Edgerton! Omfg I love him. The things I could do to him!
I like Natalie but she’s a terrible actress. I think her tiny build also makes her hard to cast as the lead in films.
Tiny build AND tiny voice.
I’ve never liked her, and this movie sounds dreadful.