Nobody Plays a Bad Actress Better Than Natalie Portman

Watching a great performance can be like falling through a mirror—not seeing yourself reflected, exactly, but feeling a ripple of familiarity as the character’s experience washes over you. But try that trick with Natalie Portman, and you’ll find yourself smashing your nose on cold, hard glass. For an Oscar-winning actress who’s been hailed as one of the greats since she was a child, Portman is a singularly removed performer, always keeping the audience at arm’s length. Some actors disappear into their characters; Portman stands outside hers, sizing them up with a clinician’s eye. She can, and frequently does, register as a chilly technician, note-perfect but hollow. But she comes alive when she’s playing characters who are in the same predicament as her, trying to perform a part and not quite managing to pull it off. When it comes to playing a bad actress, there’s no one better.