Natalie Portman names two of the “all-time” greatest performances
Even since arriving on the acting scene with her breakthrough role in Luc Besson’s Leon: The Profession, Natalie Portman has continued to deliver performances of a genuinely stultifying nature, appearing in films of starkly varying mood and tone, always showcasing her nuance and versatility as a performer.
Equally celebrated for her prowess as an academic, Portman has given some of the most memorable acting efforts of the 21st century, whether it be in the Star Wars prequel movies V for Vendetta or Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, the latter of which was a phenomenal, dedicated performance, rightfully garnering an Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’.
While Portman’s efforts on screen have indeed mesmerised countless audiences for so many years, the actor has never stopped short of offering her praise for some of her favourite performances by other actors. In a feature with A-Frame, she once named the films that have inspired her the most.
In doing so, Portman pointed out two performances in particular that she considered the greatest of all time, beginning with her May December co-star Julianne Moore in the 1995 Todd Haynes film Safe, the first film in which Moore starred following her breakthrough in the Robert Altman movie Short Cuts.
“Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore made one of the greatest films ever, and one of the greatest performances ever — that has so much to do with a woman’s role in society, and also with environmental catastrophe, and the relationship between the two,” Portman said of Safe.
She added: “It’s just great. Zach Braff showed it to me as an inspiration for Garden State, which is not obvious. I was like 21, and he gave me some reference films, and that was one of them, shockingly.” Safe sees Moore play a Los Angeles Housewife who falls victim to a strange environmental illness, and she delivers a genuinely rousing performance.
Moore is not the only actor of the 1990s to have impressed Portman, though, as she quickly turned her attention to the effort that Emily Watson gave in Lars von Trier’s wildly intense Breaking the Waves, released in 1996. “Breaking the Waves was a really important film for me in terms of the way the story’s told and the acting of Emily Watson,” Portman noted.
The actor continued: “It’s one of my all-time favourite performances. It’s so extreme, and yet believable what she does. And then the way the story’s told — with the intervals with music over those postcard images — is just so punk, and in between a classically-told history. It really impacted me a lot.”
Watson made her feature film debut in von Trier’s psychological drama, playing a peculiar woman from the Scottish Highlands whose intense love for her husband is expressed through her sleeping with other men after he is immobilised following a work accident on an oil rig.
Check out the trailers for Safe and Breaking the Waves below.
