Portman explains switch to directing
Natalie Portman today explained why she had turned her hand to directing, saying there was not always acting work which fulfilled a creative need.
Portman was discussing her short film 'Eve' at the Venice Film Festival, which marks her directorial debut.
The movie stars Lauren Bacall – and Portman said it was “rare” to see someone with the actress’s experience and wisdom on screen.
Hundreds of people queued round the block to see Portman’s work when it opened the short films section of the festival.
The movie concerns a young woman named Kate, who visits her grandmother Lola for dinner, and is surprised to find the older woman is on a date with a man named Joe.
Asked why she became a director, Portman said: “I was always interested in trying to write and direct.
“We have so much time off between filming as actors that we tend to get restless and we want a creative outlet. There is not always acting work that fulfils that need.”
She said in the future she hoped to continue her acting career and balance it with directing, adding she had a “whole new respect” for directors.
Portman said that going to watch films was an “amazing experience”.
She continued: “I hope we preserve the theatre aspect of it. I think it’s important to experience it with other people, not just alone on an iPod or something.”
The young star, whose film career already spans 16 years, said that watching a film back as a director: “If there’s anything that’s askew it’s up to you - that’s pretty horrifying.”
Portman said she probably needed to do more acting before directing a longer film.
Paying tribute to veteran actress Bacall, Portman said: “The fact that she agreed to do this was a wonderful, wonderful surprise. She can do anything. She has so much to offer.
“She’s so remarkable. It is so exciting to see someone with that much experience and that much wisdom on screen and it’s rare.”
Portman said an alternative ending had been shot with Bacall, adding: “I loved both of them.”
She said it was “fantastic” to be able to have a choice.
The actress said she had taken inspiration for Eve from her relationship with her own grandmother, who lives in Cincinnati.
She told how her friends were starting to define themselves in relation to their mothers and grandmothers “and how we are reflections of the generation before”.
Paying tribute to the late Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, Portman said he was loving to everyone he worked with on set.
She continued: “I definitely tried to be that way with my crew.”
She said she had probably been influenced by everyone she had ever worked with, but she also highlighted director Mike Nichols, with whom she worked on the play 'The Seagull'.
Asked if she would direct a re-make, she said that occasionally such films were appropriate, particularly when they gave a new cultural slant.
