Natalie Portman for US Vogue

Reversal of fortune.

US Vogue January 2011 Issue
Editorial: "Spreading her Wings"
Photographer: Peter Lindbergh

J. Mendel Spring 2011 Collection
Model: Mirte Maas

Man, they are flogging the hell out of that Black Swan movie and we have to say, it's working. For us, at least. Never really gave much thought to her either way, but it does sound like quite the performance. Anyway, here's Princess Leia's mom, making the first steps in her Oscar campaign, stopping at Vogue along the way. What's weird is, it's a total reversal of what we would have expected.

Consider:

On dancing: “Two hours a day after school, five hours on Saturdays. When I started acting, I knew I’d have to downgrade to twice a week and would no longer be in the best class, so I stopped. The dance training for Black Swan started a year before the film, with two hours a day. Six months later we ramped it up to five hours a day, and the last two months it was eight hours a day, because we added choreography and cross training, so I was also swimming a mile a day. The discipline was good for the part—it hurt a lot; your body is in constant pain.”

On being vegetarian and vegan: “I swear, I eat. I ate a bagel an hour ago. I consume my own weight in hummus every day. I cook a lot, and I even do vegan baking.”

I like pleasure, I like joy. I’d never get to the point where I would starve or injure myself like Nina does. I’m the opposite—when I’m hungry, I eat, and I always make sure I’m eating something delicious. I’m tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to live up to, but that’s also part of my pleasure: knowing you are being your fullest self. Being your fullest self is a lot of work.”

On vulgarity: “There’s a difference between being in a bra and underpants as an object on a men’s-magazine cover and playing yourself—a woman with desires and needs who loves and laughs with her friends—in a bra and underpants. You become an object if you simply put it out there. Most movies are made by men, it’s totally natural that they’re going to present their worldview, so we’re trying to find more women who are writers and directors who are expressing their worldview. Did you see Tiny Furniture? Lena Dunham wrote, directed, and starred in it; she’s 23, and it is just amazing. She walks around in her underwear for the whole movie; it’s harsh. She’s the subject, she’s not the object, and it’s beautiful—that’s the kind of thing we need more of.

She gave a really fantastic interview and was featured in a totally unimaginative editorial. We would have predicted exactly the opposite. The pictures are okay enough but the pseudo-ballet looks were a pretty dull way to go.


Behind-the-scenes video:



[Photo Credit: Peter Lindbergh via vogue.com, style.com - Video Credit: SassiSamGossipFiles via YouTube.com]


Post a Comment

Labels: Fashion, J. Mendel, Magazine Cover/Editorial, Natalie Portman, Vogue