The “extreme” performance Natalie Portman adores
Few actors in Hollywood have experienced the industry from childhood to adulthood, with Natalie Portman having been engaged in the world of moviemaking ever since her feature film debut in Leon in 1994 at the tender age of 12. Ever since then, Portman has gone on to collaborate with some of the industry’s greatest names, including George Lucas, Todd Haynes, Alex Garland and Wes Anderson.
An actor who is equally known for her award-worthy performances and blockbuster appearances, Portman is one of the industry’s most professional names, lending her talents to the Star Wars and Marvel universes while keeping her Oscar firmly in her back pocket. Her recent appearance in Haynes May December alongside Julliane Moore was particularly impressive given the criticism that was fired her way following the release of 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder.
It certainly helped the star that Moore is one of her all-time favourite actors, so proving herself alongside the award-winner was highly desirable. Speaking to A.Frame about Moore’s appearance in 1995’s Safe, Portman stated: “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”.
Yet, while she adored the performance, there is another actor who she equally admires, calling Emily Watson’s appearance in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves one of her favourite characters in cinematic history.
“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,” she told the publication, “It’s one of my all-time favorite 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 story. It really impacted me a lot”.
One of the Danish filmmaker’s most notoriously bleak movies, Breaking the Waves, was a Palme d’Or nominee and a Grand Prix Winner at the Cannes Film Festival, telling the story of a woman whose faith is tested when her husband is paralysed after an accident. Starring Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier opposite Watson, the film is a devastating excavation of religion headed up by one marvellous leading performance.
Take a look at Watson in the trailer for von Trier’s Breaking the Waves below.
