Natalie Portman to play astronaut in upcoming movie
Portman plays an astronaut who comes back to earth and begins to lose touch with reality in this sci-fi drama.
By HANNAH BROWNActor Natalie Portman poses at the world premiere of the film "The Avengers: Endgame" in Los Angeles, California, April 22, 2019(photo credit: MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS)
Natalie Portman, the Oscar-winning Israeli-American actress and mom to children named Aleph and Amalia, will be seen on screen again soon in Noah Hawley’s feature film, Lucy in the Sky, which will be released at film festivals in the fall, according to an interview the director gave to IndieWire.Portman plays an astronaut who comes back to Earth and begins to lose touch with reality in this sci-fi drama. Her co-stars include Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Zazie Beetz (Atlanta) as fellow astronauts, and Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast, Downton Abbey) as her husband. The trailer features a less-than-glamorous Portman portraying the working-class heroine with an unflattering hair style reminiscent of the “The Dorothy,” the hairstyle worn by 1970s Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill.Hawley said that Fox Searchlight will start showing the film at festivals in the US and around the world just in time for Oscar season, which goes from late October to December. This release plan makes sense, since Portman’s films tend to get nominated for and win awards: She won the Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan in 2011 and was also nominated for her performance as Jackie Kennedy in Jackie and for Best Supporting Actress in Closer.In addition, she directed, starred in and adapted a movie from Amos Oz’s memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was filmed in Hebrew in Jerusalem and was nominated for the prestigious Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival.Portman, who was born in Israel, has always put her Jewish and Israeli identity front and center. Her husband, French choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied, is reportedly converting to Judaism. Portman was slated to receive the Genesis Prize in Jerusalem last year but refused to accept it at the last minute because she did not want to stand onstage with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although she emphasized that she did not support the BDS movement.
