On the big screen, Natalie Portman put herself in the shoes of the iconic first lady Jackie Kennedy. The film, directed by the Chilean Pablo Larraín, has already been presented at various festivals with excellent reviews. Many say that the film will integrate the list of nominations for the Oscars
Natalie Portman stars in Jackie, the film that shows the various nuances in Jackie Kennedy's life since the assassination of her husband, US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. The biopic reflects the impact that the tragic event caused on the life of the iconic first lady, as well as the public and private repercussions that she had to face, and her struggle to tend to the legacy of her husband.
The film, which marks the debut of Chilean director Pablo Larraín in an American production, has already had an excellent acceptance: it won the Best Screenplay award at the Venice Festival; and on January 2, they will honor the actress with an award at the Palm Springs Film Festival. In addition, it was nominated for several awards, and critics are already postulating it as one of the films that will surely integrate the list of Oscar nominations, in 2017.
The cast of the film is completed of various figures such as Greta Gerwig (Mistress America), Peter Sarsgaard (Black Mass. Strictly Criminal), Max Casella (Wild Play), Beth Grant (The Mindy Project series), and John Hurt (Only Lovers Survive).
The realization of this production was not easy. In 2010 the script was ready, and director Darren Aronofsky planned to direct it with his then-fiancée Rachel Weisz in the title role. After his retirement, Aronofsky remained with the project as a producer and asked Larraín to consider it. In an interview with Vulture, Portman said that when she met the director, she felt practically "challenged" to make the film. "She told me: 'We do this together or we both leave.'
"She (for Jackie Kennedy) was an incredibly mysterious person, and I think Natalie had it in her eyes," said the Chilean director. In addition, she told the interpreter that she would ask writer Noah Oppenheim to cut every scene in the script that did not include her. "I remember her eyes widening... I guess that's scary for an actor, but at the same time it's challenging, and Natalie is a true artist and she takes risks," added Larraín.
When Portman agreed to play the role, her parents gave her a valuable piece of research: A Summer Special, a limited-edition book written by a young Jacqueline Bouvier and her sister Lee, during a trip to Europe in 1951." It's so funny to see these two wild girls having a good time," Portman said. "That time in Europe totally affected the way she was as a first lady," she noted.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, the actress admitted that she was afraid of facing this great challenge: "I was absolutely terrified, and I also thought that it was not the best idea to accept the film because it was so easy to fail. But I also like what scares me, and I always end up working on whatever scares me the most."
He also explained that he had to work a lot to achieve the same tone of voice as the first lady: "There is a lot of material about her, although there is also a lot that was lost from her life because they also edited it... on purpose. That's why I needed to use my imagination after finding some videos, and I also worked with a voice specialist to adopt her accent and for her voice, which I found eternally interesting."
"I wanted to show the determination that she had in telling her own story. Jackie wanted to be the author of her story and that of her husband. I also think that she knew very well how to divide her image in private and what people wanted to perceive from her, who she really was, and who she really wanted to be. Those two personalities are also reflected in the different images that the film shows," Portman concluded.
