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)
CMG: In Fish Tank, FOUR YEARS AGO? Certainly. But that's the thing, FOUR YEARS AGO. What would four years out of major work do to someone?
i'm so sick of reading chastain's name..she is neither talented nor beautiful.
Anyway i can't imagine a lady macbeth better than what kidman would have been
Volvagia- I think we're on the same page as I am in no way a proponent of Katie Jarvis because nothing in Fish Tank, a good performance mind you, even entertains the idea she could be a Lady Macbeth. I just wanted to say I always find the age discrepancy between LM and Macbeth and who is older in the various interpretations to be interesting.
Two words: CATE BLANCHETT. Over and done. A younger Lady Macbeth is ridiculous. Bad casting call with thinking that Natalie Portman can match up with Michael Fassbender effectively. I don't have high hopes for this adaptation at all now, and "Macbeth" is one of my favorite Shakespeare works.
Considering the acclaim James McAvoy is getting for his portrayal of Macbeth on stage right now, I'd rather see him in the lead role on film rather than his fellow X-Man. Plus, he's actually Scottish.
And then you cast McAvoy's wife, Anne-Marie Duff, as Lady Mac because she would be fabulous. That she looks slightly older than him (because she is) would add a really interesting dynamic.
...have we really gone over 50 comments without anyone mentioning how amazing Michelle Pfeiffer could be as Lady Macbeth? Talk about someone who can play ambitious, sexy, manipulative, and unraveling. If they were going older, she might even have been my pick over Kidman, Swinton, and Blanchett (although Rachel Weisz was a great suggestion, and someone who would fit perfectly alongside Fassbender).