• Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore deliver complementary performances in the magnificent "May December" by Todd Haynes.
  • The first plays an actress who comes to study the life of the second, a woman convicted of having seduced a teenager, before embodying him on the screen.
  • They worked complicitly to build their roles.

The jury will have a hard time deciding between the performances of Natalie Portman, who co-produced the film, and Julianne Moore in Todd Haynes' May December. The first plays an actress who is preparing for a role. The second plays the woman the actress is supposed to embody, a mother who served years in prison years ago for seducing a 13-year-old boy.

"We exchanged a lot with each other," Portman said at the film's press conference on Sunday. The film was assembled very quickly and we only had a few days to build our performances together. It may sound simple but it is a very complex process. There is no doubt about it because their performances are of great finesse.

A vertiginous mise en abyme

Her role in May December reminded Natalie Portman of the work she had done for Pablo Larrain's Jackie where she was transforming into JackieKennedy. "The creative process my character goes through is pretty close to what I did then," she recalls. Even if the actress she plays goes further by phagocytizing the life of her model without the slightest qualm.

"I was also interested in cases similar to those experienced by Julianne's character, women who have slept with kids and started a family with their lover," she says. I've even read tabloids with headlines like "Punished for Love" to document the character my character should play. »

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This vertiginous mise en abyme is one of the assets of the film as it fascinates and questions the viewer as much about the news item evoked by the film as about the profession of actor. "I watched Julianne play as if she wasn't playing a character but as if she was really someone whose movements I had to reproduce in front of the camera. I enjoyed studying it," says Natalie Portman. It is hard to believe that the two actresses barely knew each other before the shooting as they seem complicit. They are so amazing that the jury would be well advised to share an acting prize with them.

  • Cannes Film Festival
  • Entertainment
  • Cinema
  • Natalie Portman
  • Julianne Moore