Steven Prusakowski
When you think about Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman, being nervous is probably not a quality you would use to describe her. With a career spanning over 30 years, numerous genre-crossing roles, three Oscar nominations, and collaborations with some of the greatest actors and directors of our time, you might assume that no challenge could affect her nerves at this point. Surprisingly, that’s not the case.
Awards Radar sat down once again (after Joey spoke to her earlier this year here) with the incredibly talented Natalie Portman to discuss her latest project, Apple TV+’s Lady in the Lake. “I still get nervous about everything,” revealed the actress. Her nerves, she explained, stem from her commitment to taking on roles that offer new challenges—’new mountains to climb’—which propel her to work harder. Lady in the Lake is no exception. Portman described the limited drama series as ‘a marathon’ and ‘an extremely challenging experience.’ It only takes an episode or two to understand exactly what she means.
The series, directed by DGA Award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el, stars Portman as Maddie Schwartz, a journalist navigating a male-dominated newsroom in 1960s Baltimore. Schwartz becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram), whose body is found in a local reservoir. Portman’s performance offers a captivating blend of ambition, determination, and vulnerability as the story unfolds from both Cleo’s and Maddie’s perspectives—the victim and the investigator. The series is deeply rooted in its setting, both in terms of place and time, painting a vivid picture of the complex intersections of race, gender, and identity.
Portman brings a fierce energy and passion to the character whose ambition often takes her to ethically questionable territories. Known for her diverse body of work across film Lady in the Lake marks Portman’s first work in television. We had the privilege of discussing her process, the challenges of playing such a multifaceted character, how the generations before and after influence her work as well as touch upon her body of work, including if there is a chance for a Leon: The Professional sequel during our conversation. You can read excerpts from it or watch it in its entirety on video (below).
On the research done to prepare for the role:
I did a lot of research on newsrooms and what it was like for a woman in the newsroom at that time. I spoke to some journalists who were in newsrooms at the time, female journalists. Also, of course, there’s so much documentary footage from that time, and from that time in Baltimore, there was so much research on what Baltimore was like at the time, how it was this sort of mecca for culture and jazz musicians, music and nightlife, and what the Jewish community was like during that time.
I think understanding how lonely it was to be a woman in the newsroom at the time. I think understanding where Jews were in America at that time, that they were not yet considered white, and that there was kind of this period of wanting to be as American as possible and as white as possible, but not being treated like that. And then what that means, of course, of being a minority group that tries to join the kind of majority concept of whiteness—that’s obviously an invented construct.
Maddie is a mother, a wife, a lover, a fighter for justice, a journalist. Is there one aspect of her that Portman connected with most?
Portman: Well, I think that it was exciting for me that she was all of those things, because I think most women do have these many different aspects of themselves, that they do have these different roles they play and different personas they have in different environments. It’s very different with a lover than with your child or at work versus when you’re at a cafe. The ways you’re treated and the ways you feel as a woman are different. And so it was incredible to have the opportunity to have all of these different avenues of her personality expressed.
On the importance of the costuming in the series?
Portman: The yellow suit that Shiona (costume designer Shiona Turini) chose for me was just such a striking color. I loved that as a character expression of someone who really is trying hard to stand out and is wearing her individuality on her sleeve, and her boldness, her ambition is all in it. And of course, it goes through so many transformations in the series when it’s kind of implicated in the death of the child, and it carries so much symbolism with the abortion and all of that. There’s really this incredible meaning to that suit.
On working with co-star Moses Ingram:
It was extraordinary getting to work with Moses. She’s just really one of the most talented actresses I’ve ever gotten to see work up close. And it was very poignant, obviously, that my character is kind of obsessed with her throughout the story, but never really knows her. And that’s obviously part of what it’s about: not really putting the effort into knowing someone who might be going through similar challenges under different circumstances, but in your same city, crossing paths with you on a daily basis. And you need to have that curiosity and empathy to really reach out to them. So we had very few scenes together, unfortunately, but the ones we did were extraordinary. And she’s just so prepared and smart with her choices and just so, so talented. It was incredible to watch.
On the many challenges of her role:
PORTMAN: This was a marathon. It was absolutely a completely different, extremely challenging experience. It was like every day was an incredibly dramatic scene, incredibly physical, lots of dialogue. It was really, really, really intense, but always really fulfilling creatively. Alma was just an extraordinary leader. She’s just—I mean, the fact that she wrote and directed every single episode, she wrote, obviously, with the team, but she really led that. And she was just so on top of everything and had such a specific vision and was able to lead us all with such clarity and brilliance. It was amazing to get to be part of her team.
On how being a parent influences how she chooses roles and projects:
PORTMAN: I always want it to be a creatively fulfilling experience. I won’t just work to work, which I did before I had kids because I want it to be meaningful and I want to go back to my kids like enriched from what I do at work. I also think a lot more, of course, about what I’m putting into the world and what kind of culture I want to be part of creating for my kids. And yeah, it’s definitely more. I think about it a lot more.
Was there ever a sequel to Leon: The Professional in the works? If there was today, would you do it?
PORTMAN: There was definitely a script kind of floating around, but it didn’t get really farther than that. I never say no to anything. You know, off the bat, I would have to obviously see the kind of details around it.
It’s always a lot of pressure when I think there’s something that you make that a lot of people—it’s meaningful for them—that you want to respect that original experience and only revisit it if there’s a compelling reason to.
Watch the full interview with Natalie above and her captivating work on
Lady in the Lake streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.
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