On January 18, 2024, Natalie Portman graced the cover of Elle France in a stunning visual collaboration with renowned fashion photographer Felix Cooper, capturing the essence of modern elegance fused with timeless cinematic mystique. Shot in Paris, the editorial was a sophisticated reflection of Portman’s evolving persona—rooted in her dual identity as both a Hollywood icon and a vocal advocate for women’s empowerment. Wearing pieces from Dior, the maison she has long represented as a global ambassador since circa 2010, the shoot unfolded across vintage hotel suites and Haussmannian balconies, echoing the grandeur of French cinema from the 1960s.
‘A visceral piece of writing’ … Natalie Portman as Alice and Clive Owen as Larry in the film of Closer. Photograph: Collection Christophel
How we made Closer – by Clive Owen and Patrick Marber
‘I wanted to write a Shakespearean scene with someone in disguise, so I went into a lesbian chatroom pretending to be a gay woman’ Interviews by Chris Wiegand Tuesday 9 July 2019
Patrick Marber, playwright
I was in Atlanta in 1996 with a tour of my play Dealer’s Choice and I was dragged along to a lap-dancing club. It seemed a potent, haunting place for a scene about power and sex. That night I wrote a version of the lap-dance scene in Closer with characters called A and B. I wanted to figure out who the guy was, who the young woman was, and what happened to them before and after.
17 Stars Who Went to Extreme Lengths for Movie Roles
August 14, 2018
Margot Robbie was nearly unrecognizable as Tonya Harding in 2017’s I, Tonya, but not just because on-set makeup artists transformed her with prosthetics, makeup, and a few very ’80s wigs. She also trained to look like one of the world’s former best skaters on the ice: Robbie actually skated for several hours a day, several days a week for five months (although she still couldn’t land the coveted triple axel, which is understandable). Robbie is far from the only actor to go to extreme lengths to prepare for a movie role in recent years; check out the list, including Christian Bale, Jamie Dornan, and more.
Natalie Portman: ‘JFK was a great proponent of civil rights. Trump is taking us backwards’
The Oscar-tipped star of Jackie talks about playing the widowed first lady of the progressive president and why the new inauguration is an ‘upsetting moment’
Rory Carroll
Thursday 19 January 2017 15.24 GMT
Natalie Portman enters the screening room wearing black shoes, a black dress and a black cape. The effect is stylish, if sombre. She could be in mourning. Or maybe Darth Vader has lured her to the dark side after all.
Natalie Portman
Photo by mark abraham
The effect dissolves when she extends a hand, flashes a blinding smile and reveals a sizeable belly bump. She plonks down in the front row, taking the weight off her legs. Portman is seven months pregnant and taking the radiance business seriously. She looks great.
Natalie Portman: 'The less I’m in a movie, the more I like it'
The actor talks about directing herself, the things she learned from Terrence Malick and Mike Nichols, and making a tourist trip to the Star Wars universe
Nigel M Smith Friday 19 August 2016 09.47 BST
Natalie Portman
Photo by Mark Abrahams
Hi Natalie. You’ve moved back to LA after two years in Paris (1). What’s it like to be back in the belly of the beast?
People in LA are just wild. French people are very judgemental, or in Paris at least, about how you are and how you look. You would never wear workout clothes on the street or sandals or shorts or wild colours. It was fun to get back to where everyone’s just being free.
Did you move back because of the vegan cuisine? (2)
[Laughs] Took the words out of my mouth. Actually, Paris has improved a lot for vegans in the past few years. It was a lucky moment to be there as a vegan.
You premiered A Tale of Love and Darkness at Cannes (3), where critics are notorious for booing. Was it scary opening yourself up to that?
Amy Adams once said this thing that I remember all the time about how artists have to have a very thin skin. You have to be very emotionally ready, emotionally connected to everything but then, as a public figure, you have to have such a thick skin. People will say such harsh things (4). You need to be vulnerable for your work but you also need to be tough as nails just to keep up, and that combination is really hard to maintain.
Do you read reviews of your own films?
No. I avoid it. It’s inhibiting to hear bad things about yourself. It makes you afraid, and you can’t be afraid when you work.
So many actors hate watching themselves. How do you get past that?
I usually see a movie once when it comes out at the premiere and then never see it again. Usually I cringe through the premiere and hate everything I do. The less I’m in a movie, the more I like it.
How do you rate your performance in this film?
I will never tell you anything good about myself. I promise! At least I was able to have the distance to be like, “OK. This could be better.”
You’ve worked with some incredible filmmakers (5). Who influenced your directorial style?
Mike Nichols was a huge influence. He emphasised story so much. He was always telling the story over and over again to the cast so that everyone’s in the same moment. This is the moment they fall in love … this is the moment she realises he’s cheating … this is the moment he sees his mother as flawed for the first time. You name the big event of the scene and that helps you connect the dots.
Terrence Malick was a huge influence also. He’s completely different. He’s just constantly pushing to paint from life and not from other films. Whenever they say “It has to be a three-act structure” or whatever, he’s like: “That’s not true. You portray the world as you experience it.”
I read that while shooting Annihilation (6) at Pinewood Studios in London you visited the Rogue One and Episode VIII sets. What was it like to step back into the Star Wars universe? (7)
It’s always fun getting to visit a movie set as a tourist. When you go and it’s your job and you go everyday, you get a little immune to how magical it is. To experience it as a tourist just makes it magic again.
You have Jackie coming up, in which you portray Jackie Onassis. You’re being tipped for an Oscar. You seemed to enjoy yourself while on the awards trail for Black Swan ... (8)
Being sober the whole time is a trip! (9) I’ll tell you that. [Laughs] I felt unusual being that way relative to the room.
Footnotes
(1) Portman moved with her husband, Benjamin Millipied, and their five-year-old son Aleph, after Millipied became director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet in 2014. He returned to LA Dance, the company he created in 2012, this summer.
(2) Portman has been vegetarian since her preteen years. In 2009, she declared herself vegan after reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals.
(3) Portman’s feature directorial debut, an ambitious, Hebrew-language adaptation of Israeli writer Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel of the same name. She stars as an Eastern European Holocaust survivor who struggles to adapt to life in what will soon become the state of Israel.
(4) A Tale of Love and Darkness premiered in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section and earned mixed reviews. The Guardian’s Andrew Pulver called it a “serious, well made adaptation.”
(5) Portman has worked with film-makers including George Lucas, Mike Nichols, Terrence Malick, Darren Aronofsky and Anthony Minghella.
(6) The next film from Ex Machina film-maker Alex Garland. Portman plays a biologist who signs up for a dangerous secret expedition.
(7) Portman played Padmé Amidala in Stars Wars Episodes I, II and III.
(8) Portman won her best actress Oscar in 2010 for her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s ballerina thriller Black Swan.
(9) She was pregnant while campaigning for the award.
• A Tale of Love and Darkness is released in the US on 19 August
Mark Abrahams was born in 1958 in Santa Ana, California. The gift of a Nikon FM from his mother ignited his passion for photography. Working as a truck driver by day, Abrahams transformed his tiny bathroom into a functioning darkroom to develop film, retouch negatives and manipulate surfaces at night. Against all odds, in the early 1990s Abrahams found himself shooting iconic musicians, supermodels and landing editorial shoots with international editions of Vogue, GQ and many other world renowned fashion, music and art publications.
One of the foremost fashion and magazine cover photographers of the past two decades, American photographer Mark Abrahams has straddled the gap between fashion and celebrity portraiture with guileless simplicity and exacting care. Abrahams portrays his subjects with an introspective depth and candor. His subjects run the gamut of the A-list: Julianne Moore, George Clooney, James Franco, Dakota Fanning, Sean Diddy Combs, Ashley Olsen, Dennis Hopper, Lindsay Lohan, Larry Clark, Michelle Obama, Ed Ruscha, Philip Roth, Roberto Bolle, Evander Holyfield, Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Tom Hanks, Rachel Weisz and countless others.
Marks Abrahams first self titled book was published in 2011 by Damiani. The volume which features a text by James Frey, provides a dazzling parade of the glitterati under Abrahams' lens, devoid of affectation or artifice.
