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ForNatalie Portmanin the year 2018, conventional movie stardom is a home she can always return to.
As of late, however, shes preferred to restrict herself to the occasional visit.
The gaps between straight-down-the-middle studio projects have gotten wider, even though her presence at multiplexes never quite fades.
Its been five years since her last appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Then theresVox Lux,a polarizing work of such ambition that it couldnt possibly fit in the preceding paragraph.
(Or lack thereof.)
First things first: the accent.
There are people who, when they become famous, want to emphasize that theyre still from the street.
Its a shield of authenticity, and then the toughness also gives her more of a dont-mess-with-me vibe.
But of course, its transparently a performance.
Shes on all the time.
I spoke with the director last week, and he had mentioned seeing some misinterpretations of the film.
That sounds healthy.Oh, yeah.
Plus, at this point, youre not pointing out anything we can fix.
I cant go back in the film and change my accent.
Whats been more interesting to me is how people make parallels to other roles Ive done.
People can draw thematic links that Im too close to notice myself.
I find all of this productive, more so than getting feedback on my portrayal.
I see my own tendencies more clearly.
Celeste isnt a tragic victim of circumstance, either.
She has an agency, a hand in her own demise.
It empowers her, in a destructive sense.
My favorite scene might be when Celeste has the tantrum in the dressing room before the show.
It feels unbound from realism, in a more accented style of performance.
Its all extremes, and that goes for the acting as well.
So when my character calls for it, I take them a step back from reality.
I think movies have lost a lot from trying to be naturalistic.
Brady talks about her as an avatar for America.
Theres not even a single pop star working right now that you could put your finger on.
But these are archetypal.
Shes not supposed to be a stand-in for anybody from the modern climate of pop music.
After having doneBlack Swan,was the lengthy final performance no big deal?It was averybig deal!
If you know what its going to entail, youd never agree to it.
But you go in blind, like, Sure, I can figure this out in a month!
and then you just trust the experts around you and the [waves hand]magic of cinema.
My voice makes me want to jump out of my skin when Im transcribing the recordings of interviews.
Dont you worry your little head.
But then, when I heard it, I was thrilled.
I asked Brady, when he first offered me the role, if he needed to hear me sing.
And he just said, That doesnt matter.
In that moment, what he was going for started to make more sense to me.
Do you consider the ending to be redemptive for Celeste?I do not.
The scenes not meant to be sarcastic, and neither is Raffeys statement.
By anyones measure,Vox Luxis a dense film.
He wanted to know what conflicts could define the 21st century in the same way those defined the 20th.
The war on our soil is mass shootings, and the foreign war is terror.
You dont often get to think about film with this framing.
