Something Portman This Way Comes
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 1:28PM 
JA from MNPP here - by now I think most of you have probably heard the news that Michael Fassbender is going to play Macbeth for the director of Snowtown. (Any fans of Snowtown up in here? I found it monstrously, emphasis on monstrously, effective.) Speculation immediately turned to what actress would play the scheming Lady to his doomed King - I saw everybody from Tilda Swinton to Emma Watson mentioned (and no doubt somewhere Sally Kellerman whispered her own name into the wind, too).
Well today we find out his former Jane Got a Gun co-star to be that never was Natalie Portman will be the one whispering deadly somethings in his ear, and... people don't seem happy, from what I can gather? I have to admit I'm kinda skeptical myself. I like Natalie, I thought she deserved her Oscar for Black Swan, but Vincent Cassel wasn't wrong when he told her she can nail the White Swan but she has some trouble with the darker side. Can she summon the wicked gravitas you need for this role?
I mean, we need somebody in this part that can convincingly tell Michael Fassbender that he doesn't have, you know, the sufficient manhood, ahem. So yeah... now that I think about it pretty much anybody's doomed, having to sell that whopper. "The Scottish Play" is a curse after all!
Reader Comments (56)
My main issue with Natalie being cast isn't even that she's better at nailing the white swan than the black swan, even though that's part of the reason. I like Natalie fine, though I'm not earnestly a fan of her BLACK SWAN work, and she's lovely but there's a part of me that's very annoyed that they not only went for someone younger than Fassy for the role but someone who READS as very young - she's thirty but Portman exudes youth and I understand the whole youth thing but if any Shakespeare play benefits from the maturity of the leads it's this and add that to the fact that I doubt Nat's ability to find the gravitas for the role and I get more annoyed.
Incidentally, I'm not against Natalie not being able to suggest typical evil because the genius of Lady Macbeth is that the role is blank in a way that she's obviously a plotter but the assumed belief that she's loud and brash in her evil isn't necessarily the ONLY way to play the character. Still, Natalie's casting just seem so uninspired and again young that I'm just sort of shrugging at the whole thing.
Who knows, maybe she'll surprise us.
I must admit, I don't find Portman to be a particularly good actress. She works in certain roles, but I rarely enjoy her performances.
I like Portman. She works well when she has a strong director. I actually think she can pull off manipulative (see Bolyen Girl). And clearly, they are going young and sexy with MacBeth so why not a hot, trophy wife with big ideas as well. My only concern would be the heightened Shakespearean language...that would not be her zone.
Portman is only four years younger than Fassbender... Anyways, I actually think she can pull this off. The last thirty minutes of Black Swan sealed the deal in terms of whether or not I think she has the gravitas to play (arguably) Shakespeare's greatest villain.
Andrew K.: Yeah. This (Macbeth) is a play about people scheming and having to face their consequences, but the "maturity" (which is tied to, but not *exclusively* related to, age) of the people involved. I probably like Natalie Portman a lot when she's got good and appropriate fare to work with (Leon, Garden State, Black Swan), but, even in those, she's always come across as sheltered and immature, which helps sell the film in all those cases. If they wanted someone who actually looks younger than Fassbender but has the necessary veneer of a mature persona? Carey Mulligan. Mia Wasikowska. Keira Knightley. Even Katie Jarvis, if the director wants to pluck out a casting reunion. All of those would have been better choices.
Jessica Chastain was brought up as Lady Macbeth. I can see it. She's done Shakespeare on stage and screen before. I guess the amount of Ginger & Ginger hotness was not meant to be. Also, I have been on high alert with any casting announcements. She wrote on Facebook she had news (this was post-King Kong rumors that she acknowledged but she personally did not claim to have interest in that project and post-announcement of her in Guillermo del Toro's next film) on future projects.
I like Natalie but there is nothing that has ever read period about her.
it should be said we don't actually know yet what the director Justin Kurzel will be doing with the material - it might not be period. Macbeth's been modernized before. We don't know anything yet, save somebody will at some point need to get a spot out of something.
But I soooooo wanted Jessica Chastain to get the part.
Natalie is a great actress (how good was Closer?), but I just don't see this, and that's because we all know who should be playing Lady Macbeth, and that's clearly Ryan Gosling. Rework some parts of this play, make him Lord Macbeth, the king's ruthless right hand man/Jack Twist, and you've got yourself a movie we'd all rather see.
I don't know if portman reads so younger than her age.
but fassbender looks older than his, definitely.
not interested in this picture, to be honest.
I actually like Natalie's casting BECAUSE of how unexpected/atypical it is. If you're going to do yet another film of Macbeth, you might as well make it as different as possible from any other version, and there certainly hasn't been a Lady Macbeth that looks like Natalie before. And, as Andrew K said, the character as written is wonderfully open to interpretation. Natalie would not have been my first choice for this part (that would be Kerry Washington or Laura Linney), but I'm VERY intrigued by her presence.
And now John T's suggestion of Ryan Gosling in the part has me salivating at the prospect of a gay version of Macbeth. It would be delicious (in more ways than one)!
marcelo: How she looks is one thing, but even in something dark and moody like Black Swan, she still reads as immature.
Portman reads way too young opposite Fassbender. This is why you have the K/Cate's (Winslet and Blanchett, respectively) and Tilda's of the world, for this VERY role! God, can you imagine Portman doing that "out, damned spot!" monologue? Bitch, please.
I think Keira Knightley would have been a better choice, even though she's even younger than Portman.
It's fascinating to me how the perception of Natalie Portman's acting abilities has shifted since her film debut. Early in her career people hastened to mention her promise as an actress, while now -- even after two Oscar nods, one resulting in a win -- they are more reticent to attach a positive superlative to her name. I think this change occurred somewhere around her stolid turn in the "Star Wars" prequels, which, truth be told, did expose in an obvious way the limits of her talents. Maybe she will be out of her depth in this new role, but I'm eager to see what she can bring to the work. Perhaps she will surprise us all.
Dorian: I take the stand of "it's not necessarily about 'youth' but this is STILL not the best decision." So, as I've gone over, if they want to go the "older guy, younger wife" route: Keira? Better choice. Mia W? Better choice. Carey Mulligan? Better choice. Katie Jarvis? Possibly a FAR better choice, especially due to the possibility of a pre-existing chemistry with Fassbender.
Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare work, and I've seen at least half a dozen productions of it on stage or on screen, and I have to say my favorite take on Lady Macbeth (although far my favorite take on the whole play) is Maura Tierney in Scotland PA.
One thing that worked in Maura Tierney's favor there, and I think she's a lovely if not inspiring actress, is that she played Lady Macbeth not as some grand dame tower of ambition, but as a schemer grasping at straws just out of her reach, and somebody who would have seized that power had it not been for the emotional tole of that ambition eating away at her like a disease.
I think Natalie Portman, while not a particularly dazzling choice, has the possibility of bringing a lot of color to the role, and I'll approach it with an open mind.
I know a bunch of other people are bandying names like Jessica Chastain or Cate Blanchett or big powerhouse names, but personally I think perfect casting would be somebody whose ambition (not necessarily talent) got them the stardom they have. Gretchen Mol would be a particularly on the nose choice.
I'm very disappointed to hear that Natalie Portman has been cast. I consider her to be an actress with evident limitations, and I think that 'Black Swan' only worked for her because it utilized her screen persona's strange combination of fragility, standoffishness, flatness and immaturity. Plus, she can't do foreign accents (see 'V for Vendetta').
Jessica Chastain would have been perfect. I'm worried that she hasn't resonated with Hollywood as a viable leading lady...
is fassbender dream casting for this? I don't know the play in detail.
only poor portman gets critiqued (and I'm not even a fan of hers).
marcelo: Fassbender is dream casting for ANYTHING right now.
I'm a Portman fan and I'm hoping she pulls it off but I can't help but share some of the reservations others have mentioned. I think Knightly & Mulligan would be fine choices but I don't get the whole Mia W thing. I kind of think she is awful. I've not seen her in anything that hasn't filled me with the urge to slap her... I find her a bit bratty, pretentious & overrated. I haven't seen Jane Eyre though (PHILISTINE! PHILISTINE!) Maybe it would give me cause to reassess? How about Andrea Risborough? I think she'd knock it out of the park.
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH! Oh god, yes.
How the HELL have we gotten 21 comments into this conversation (on THIS blog) without mentioning Nicole Kidman? I believe Glenn from Stale Popcorn threw her name out on his blog and now I can't unsee it. She would've fucking slayed.
Ideally this should've been betweem Tilda, Nicole, Kirsten Scott Thomas or, another inspired choice that I saw someone throw around, Viola Davis. How cool would THAT have been? Are they all older than Fassy? Yes. But who gives a shit? And personally, I've always felt that Lady Macbeth was older, despite what general conscious says.
Blanchett is really good in roles that requires her to dial it down it in a little, but her as Lady Macbeth would've probably been an overly technical mess. So, at least we'll be spared that.
As for Natalie, I really, really don't like the idea of her in this role. Of course, she may end up surprising all of the detractors but there's literally nothing that proves that she can pull this off. And I highly doubt she had to audition for this either, so.....
She still reads as very fragile and innocent in almost everything she's done up to this point (even in Closer) and that plays well in a film like Black Swan but the last time she was called upon to play "evil" and calculating (with an accent, no less) we got The Other Boleyn Girl, LOL.
Like I said, perhaps she'll surprise, but as of now this seems kind of insane to me.
Better choices for this: Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett or Charlize Theron. They ooze sexuality and gravitas in a way Natalie never will. Lady MacBeth must be a towering figure... with a decent British accent.
clearly in life Portman is driven and mature enough to have the career she has. The character in Black Swan called for arrested development and she delivered in spades. I think she will surprise and give a fresh take on Lady Macbeth.
The idea of Cate Blanchett as Lady Macbeth makes me swoon. The idea of Natalie Portman probably regurgitating a version of her awful Anne Boleyn also makes me want to swoon but for the exact opposite reasons.
Unsex me now :(
I was hoping for someone a bit more substantial like Ruth Wilson or Samantha Morton or something but, then again, I was dubious about Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina for similar reasons and that turned out ok. I hope it works out because this is the version the next generation of schoolchildren will have to sit through.
Did anyone else have to watch the Polanski one at school? I remember "is this a dagger" (ping! cue cgi dagger) getting a big laugh.
I think Portman is a fine choice for Lady Macbeth, but do we really need another version of Macbeth at all? It's one of my favorite Shakespeares, too, but it seems like the Scottish King is getting a little overexposed. Romeo and Juliet, too. There are so many Shakespeare plays. Surely we could give a couple less exposed ones a go. Granted, The Tempest didn't really work out, but bless Julie Taymor for at least being imaginative enough to dig a little deeper in the repertoire. Titus is one of the better adaptations of his work, and that's not even a particularly great play.
Emily Blunt would have been my predictable choice.
Same age as Portman, but reads way more mature and carries a gravitas. But, Portman brings the most commercial appeal, especially in the context of Michael Fassbender. Sounds like the needed a name. I hope Portman's up for the challenge. I can't wait to see her interpretation, even though my expectations are pretty low at this point.
Personally, I like a Lady M whose main child bearing years are behind her. It just works for the part. But, a younger actress might make it more interesting and gives us something unexpected.
This had Emily Blunt / Ruth Wilson / Andrea Riseborough type of icy bitchiness written all over it.
If they were looking for someone older, Nicole Kidman or Tilda.
Portman is... blah. I mean I liked what she did in Black Swan but if that is her biggest performance ever, I'm not very impressed. A physically demanding role does not a performance for the ages make.
SVG: Oh, bleep. If I have a kid, I groan at how this is going to turn out. A Lady Macbeth younger than her husband? Again, NOT A BAD IDEA. But for that concept, you've got Mia W (Jane Eyre, Restless and Stoker showing she'd take this part in A SECOND if offered), Keira (who has fairly consistently proven (outside of the Pirates franchise), how she's both a rangey and interesting actress), Riseborough (good call), Samantha Morton (amazing call, though she looks equal to Fassbender, age wise, which I doubt they were going for based on this ending decision), Carey Mulligan (again, rangey actress who'd have taken this in a second if offered) and Katie Jarvis (desperate under worked performer open for any chance who's worked with the announced lead). ALL better choices for this casting approach.
I'm definitely on board with Phil's suggestion of Gretchen Mol. She's so terrific - and the Oscar and subsequent high profile roles that should have been hers after "The Notorious Bettie Page"
just haven't materialized. Otherwise, please no more knee-jerk casting of Keira Knightley
in period "classics". She's always out-acted by the other actresses in her films.
Two of whom -Carey Mulligan and Romola Garai - would both be exciting Lady Macbeths.,
Rachel weisz, Eva Green, Charlize, Tilda, Kate/Cate, all would have been better choices. Weisz would be my number one choice though.
Natalie Portman will be 32 soon. Michael Fassbender is 36..um that's not a huge age difference. Anyway not a big fan of Portman, but we'll see. I know LM is presumed older than her husband, but this pairing isn't a huge age difference.
Ken: Out-acted can mean two things: 1. Substantially higher quality of work or 2. Substantially higher presence of traditionally actorly qualities. If you mean the second thing I tossed out, then I'd say: That would mean Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski is "out-acted" by everyone around him in that sense, even though he's out-acting them in the other sense. Second point: It's only truly knee jerk if you say something like "she's the only choice." Acting is a bear market, and I offered multiple candidates. In that opening comment, I tossed out three other people (Mia W, Carey Mulligan and Katie Jarvis.)
Seems like it should be pointed out again that despite the age difference, Portman reads younger and less mature, as AndrewK pointed out, and Fassbender, his forehead, and the parts he chooses to play, as Marcelo pointed out, read older. That makes a difference beyond four years.
My first choice would have been Tilda. But I could see Michele Williams, Garai, Weisz, Kelly Macdonald or Shirley Henderson pull it off as well. Portman just doesn't say Shakespeare to me let alone Macbeth.
Emily Blunt is 2 years younger than Portman. Portman will be 32 in june. Sorry it irks me when people get ages wrong.
I consider her work on "Léon: The professional" to be her best to date. She was actually really good in "Closer" and she gave the best performance with her supporting/almost cameo in "Cold Mountain", but I think she did poorly on "Black Swan" (her acting's very unnatural on that role) and I'm not even talking about "V for Vendetta" and "Star Wars". If I have to go one way with her, I'd say her lows are much bigger than her highs.
Sorry Volvagia. Wasn't specifically thinking of your post when I made my comment. You certainly didn't offer Knightley as the only candidate. But her name did come up several times in other people's posts. And generally, when a period piece is announced, she tends to bubble up among the top contenders. Because she's played period roles before,there seems to be a feeling that she's a natural choice to do more of them. That's what I meant by "knee-jerk". I guess when I said her co-stars frequently "out-acted" her ,what I meant was that, to me, they were just more effective, more substantial. Sometimes by underplaying, sometimes just by a more judicious use of whatever effects were in their arsenal. Even in films where Knightley's role was potentially more powerful. I certainly feel she's serious about her craft and it's clear that, for many people, she's delivered the goods. It's just never come through for me.
Love the suggestions of Eva Green, Rachel Weisz and Ruth Wilson too. But I'm willing to give Portman the benefit of the doubt.
More imaginative subjects and pairings would be highly appreciated. Honestly, I prefer any of your suggestions... Tilda in special, she would nail it.
P.S. I love your blog!
mia w. is too 'miserable' for this no? if we're taking actresses 'personas' / previous roles into consideration (before someone says mia can show a different side of her).
so are michelle williams and carey mulligan, to be honest.
What were Diane Lane, Kate Winslet or Rachel Weisz busy?
I don't think Swinton would be the right choice. Fassbender with Theron or Blanchett would've been fascinating.
"I know a bunch of other people are bandying names like Jessica Chastain or Cate Blanchett or big powerhouse names, but personally I think perfect casting would be somebody whose ambition (not necessarily talent) got them the stardom they have. Gretchen Mol would be a particularly on the nose choice."
On the nose as in her Greek tragedy, oedipal mother figure in Boardwalk Empire or her infamous Vanity Fair cover 'It Girl' that still had people saying WTF all these years later?
Natalie may be in her early 30s but she still reads extremely young and like others have said that child-like quality was part of the lighting in a bottle performance in Black Swan. An assertive, manipulative, conniving woman in power? This is against type clearly.
Will h- How is The Scottish play overexposed? There is only the Welles movie was super-cheap and was not too faithful to the original work and then there was the Polanski movie. On stage, yes, its political undertones made it quite attractive but lesser known Shakespeare that does become movies (like Corialanus) do come out and nobody bats an eye even if those movies apply a twist to make it interesting. Be interesting to see if Much Ado About Nothing can become an art-house hit. The Whedon name helps.
Short-List for Lady Macbeth:
Jessica Chastain
Michelle Dockery
Andrea Riseborough
Rachel Weisz
Cate Blanchett
Eva Green
Charlize Theron
Romola Garai (YES! To whoever brought this up)
I want Tilda Swinton to play ALL three witches. Though she'd make a great Lady Macbeth but I guess it depends on how you always read of the age dynamic between Macbeth and LM. She could be played as younger or older. Katie Jarvis reads too young and no, I don't think St. Tilda reads too old. She does not necessarily read as royal.
I like Natalie, but I'm not really feeling this casting either. Maybe she will surprise. Who knows? But the Mia Wasikowska suggestions are crazy! She is wayyy too young (she looks like she's 12) and her performances, while good, are very subdued. I just don't see her pulling it off. And I am a mixed bag on Keira Knightley. Thought she was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E in A Dangerous Method and really quite special in Anna Karenina. I admire her for taking risks and trying to expand her range but she is wildly inconsistent. As far as younger actresses, I think Michelle Williams, Carey Mulligan, and Emily Blunt could've pulled Lady Macbeth off. Especially Blunt, who would be delicious in the role.
But seriousy, I would have much rather seen an "older" (or at least comparable to Fassbender) actress like Tilda Swinton, Rachel Weisz, or Nicole Kidman have a shot at it. I think Swinton and Kidman, especially, would've slayed this performance. I get the impression that Tilda really isn't into Shakespeare or classical theater (I remember her saying in an interview once that she has absolutely no interest in theater and how she loathed working in "industrial theater companies"), however, she did do the Derek Jarman Tempest adaptation.
I think the obvious choice for this role though is Jessica Chastain. This seems right up her alley. Weird casting decision.
This baffles me but then most decisions regarding casting that are 100% star driven with not even 20% "who might be right for the role?" driven baffle me. So...
Leon, Closer, Garden State, Black Swan
Those are four VERY good to great performances. She's obviously a divisive actress (she's only had backlash for one reason or another for her entire career!). I'm excited to see her get back to work and inspire even more of those love/hate feelings around the web. She's destined to give at least a couple more performances at the same level of quality as the four mentioned above, and with Black Swan being her most recent perf, why doubt her?!
While I don't agree with this casting choice at 100%, part of me is excited for that for the same reasons like denny said. It's more 50/50. Yes, it could be a trainwreck, but also could be a revelation. Not middle points. I'm not exactly a crazy fan of Portman, but I want to see the final result.
Ken, count me as one of these people. Seriously, I tried, but each time I dislike or find average Knightley, especially in these "bigger" roles -Even when I found her fine in "Anna Karenina"; she didn't convince me as a mature woman in love and her pathetic interaction with Aaron Johnston didn't help either. I like her in contemporany films like "Last Night" -Her best performance imho- and "Bend It Like Beckham", but seriously remind her as her lame scene on the park reciting these lines in a terrible way in A Dangerous Method, give me more doubts on her.
On the other hands, I would LOVE the suggestions of Emily Blunt, Eva Green and especially Andrea Riseborough.
I don't know, maybe i'm too permisive in this occasion or my growning dislike on Knightley as an actress each time, I don't find this news too disappointed
I read this, I know it, I sound too harsh, but yes, I tried to like Knightley in period films... And still I found her limitations notorious. She's better and natural in modern films
I would have liked Winslet, Swinton, Chastain or myself for the role. The Weisz suggestion is also smart.
God, the more I think about it the angrier I get. Who thought of Portman? It's not like the ones I mentioned are minor stars. Well, except for myself.