After a few years away from the headlines, Natalie Portman is ready for her return. And she’s doing it with a project that’s particularly personal for her.
Based on the autobiographical Amos Oz novel “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” the 34-year-old’s directorial debut is set during the formation of Israel in the years following World War II, the country where Portman was born and her father grew up.
“It’s a very strange place to be from. When you say, ‘I’m from Israel,’ everyone wants to have a 10-hour political conversation. Everyone has a very strong, passionate opinion about it,” the Long Island-raised actress told Harper’s Bazaar. “But I’m grateful for it. I had so many friends who asked when we were younger, ‘Who am I? What’s my identity?’ I never questioned my identity.”
But Portman, who obtained the rights for the novel over tea with Oz, didn’t just direct and write the film; she also stars in it as Oz’s mentally ill mother.
“The power of words is at the center of Judaism, and the creating of a people through storytelling. So I wanted to show the birth of this writer as he relates to his mother,” she said in the magazine’s August issue, out July 21.
Despite her close ties with the country, Portman would be OK answering fewer questions about it.
“I get asked so many questions about the Middle East, and I’m like, ‘Can you please just ask me about my dress? Let’s just talk about the dress!'” she jokingly told the interviewer.