Natalie Portman is expecting her third child any day now. It’s her first baby with her partner, Tanguy Destable. Her two older children with her ex-husband Benjamin Millepied, Aleph and Amalia, are now 15 and 9. Natalie (a former Long Island gal like myself), Tanguy, and the kids all live in Paris.
Natalie’s next film is a Lena Dunham-helmed romantic comedy titled Good Sex, which is out on Netflix later this year. She’s been a global ambassador for Dior’s Miss Dior fragrance since 2011 and just starred in a new campaign for Miss Dior Eau de Parfum. In a recent interview with Elle, Natalie talked about her pregnancy and love of rom-coms. She also gave thoughts on how Hollywood treats middle-aged and older women. Here are some of the highlights:
Pregnancy makes her sensitive to smells: “Scent becomes much more present for me when I’m pregnant each time, for better or worse. I was at a restaurant with a friend of mine the other night, and I was like, ‘There’s gas. There’s a problem.’ My sense is much more potent and it must be something to warn you about danger, because I am hyperaware of gas and smoke”.
On working with Lena Dunham: “I saw Tiny Furniture when it first came out and contacted her immediately and wanted to know who she was and what she was doing. She is so extraordinary as a writer, a director, and an actress. We’ve been talking and looking since then. Finally, she called me and was like, “I have this idea for you,” and it was so great. Rom-coms are my favorite movies to watch, so I’m so excited to get to be part of one that I think is really, really special and beautiful.”
She loves rom-coms: “They’re just very comforting. The world is hard, life’s hard, and when you sit down and watch a movie to have some joy and pleasure—it’s nice. It’s really where you see that what we do [as actors] can bring light into people’s lives and entertain.”
Does she read a lot of romance books? “I don’t, but I should. I recently read The Wedding People and liked [it]. My friends have told me about Sarah J. Maas, but I haven’t gotten into those yet.”
Her pregnancy wellness routine: “I try and do some kind of physical activity every day. I either swim or walk, and do gyrotonics. I’m still vegan. I take lots of vitamins. I try and sleep as much as possible. I also feel like being pregnant is almost like a cleanse because you don’t drink and can’t have caffeine. So I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ve never been cleaner in my life.’”
On maternal care in the U.S. vs France: “It’s interesting, actually. In many ways, the same. I find the doctors to be amazing in both places, but they do have different landmarks for pregnancy and some of the tests they recommend are different. The biggest difference for me is a socialized versus not-socialized approach to medicine. When you’re in a socialized medicine country, they’re trying to do the best for the most people, without making you pay for extra stuff. Whereas, in the U.S., they’re like, ‘Well, if you want this, we can add this.’ You can see that it is also a business.”
On a woman’s longevity in Hollywood: “I feel grateful to the generation of actresses before us who really expanded the lifespan of how long an actress works. People used to be like, I can’t get jobs after 40, and now our greatest actresses are in their 60s and 70s. You see women really thriving throughout their entire lives.”
Ugh, pregnancy-related smell sensitivity is the ultimate Spidey-sense. I was lucky that smells didn’t affect me during pregnancy, but I am sensitive to gas and smoke in general. My biggest pregnancy aversion was to tapenade. I couldn’t stand its look, taste, or smell. It’s great that Natalie’s been able to remain active during this pregnancy. I stayed active while pregnant with my older son, but had a lot of heartburn and physical discomfort with my younger son, and had to stop working out by my third trimester. I hope Natalie’s last days/weeks of pregnancy are comfortable and that she has an easy delivery.
Natalie’s comment about being a part of a generation that expanded the age range of working actresses also caught my attention. Hollywood still has a long way to go, but it does feel like something has shifted. Last year, The Guardian published a piece about how “older” Hollywood women are breaking taboos by becoming bankable. They credited a combination of cultural visibility, streaming services expanding the demand for those types of roles, and a rise in actresses forming production companies. Like Natalie, I’m an Elder Millennial. Our generation has put in the work to normalize aging, but at the end of the day, it’s been a multi-generational effort. Girl power, y’all. It’s slow and steady, but we’re making progress.
Photos credit: Backgrid and via Instagram
I was super sensitive to smells during my pregnancies. It never really went away. Smoke was a big problem for me, made worse because my husband loves to bbq! Seafood would send me right over the edge!! I was not expecting that when I was expecting. Besides super smell powers and morning sickness, my pregnancies were smooth sailing, thankfully.
She’s lucky she doesn’t have to take the Paris metro in the morning. I did when I was pregnant and the augmented smells plus the movement were almost vomit inducing. I would carry around a handkerchief with mint essential oil on it to stick my nose in
A colleague told me she knew she was pregnant with her second when she made coffee one morning and had an immediate NOPE from her body before she even took a sip. With the first she didn’t immediately realise what it was.