Natalie Portman interview: ‘Lady in the Lake’
"It was definitely the most challenging shoot of my life, but also the most rewarding," declares "Lady in the Lake" star Natalie Portman about starring in and producing her first series. For our recent webchat she adds, "Because I was producing, it was really just like a train rushing quickly when we were on it, and troubleshooting in between shooting and it was incredible because Alma dreamed big and always had incredible ideas and just to make them a reality and to deal with the many challenges that came up with such an incredible work." Watch our video interview above.
SEE ‘Lady in the Lake’ trailer
The Oscar winner (for Best Actress in 2010's “Black Swan”) stars in "Lady in the Lake" as Maddie Schwartz, a housewife-turned-journalist in late 1960s Baltimore who becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of Cleo Johnson (“The Queen’s Gambit” Emmy nominee Moses Ingram), a Black woman who was found floating in a reservoir. It tells both the story of how Johnson ended up there, and Schwartz’s quest to find out why. Portman (who also serves as executive producer) and Ingram lead an impressive ensemble cast including Y’lan Noel, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers, Noah Jupe, Josiah Cross, Mikey Madison, and Emmy winner Pruitt Taylor Vince (“The Practice”). The seven-episode Apple TV+ limited drama series is written and directed by DGA Award-winning director Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) and is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by author Laura Lippman. Maddie is a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and in her timeline, Cleo is deceased, as Maddie becomes obsessed with untangling the strange circumstances of her death. In Cleo’s timeline, she is a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. The series twists and turns through its elaborate non-linear narrative, with Maddie’s investigation leading to grave danger for herself and both women’s families.
"I had no idea what I was what I was in for," Portman reveals with a knowing smile. "I think we almost shot for like six months. I think the whole series was six months. My part was like three and a half, and none of us had any idea, because we had unexpected, crazy things that would pop up all the time. It was exciting and interesting, and each challenge obviously gave us all new skills," she explains, adding that the experience "taught us the power of our relationship with each other. The thing that I think was so extraordinary was that through it all we were all so close and supported each other and really were a team and figured out solutions together to anything that came up. And it was just an incredible collaboration with the other producers, and of course with Alma and the other actors."
