‘Lady in the Lake’ First Look: Natalie Portman Is a ’60s Housewife Turned Investigative Journalist
Natalie Portman is taking a page out of her “Jackie” days and venturing back to the 1960s — this time, to investigate a murder.
The Oscar winner leads Apple TV+ limited series “Lady in the Lake,” based on Laura Lippman’s novel of the same name. “Honey Boy” filmmaker Alma Har’el penned the pilot and will co-write the rest of the series with Dre Ryan (“The Man in the High Castle”); Har’el will also direct.
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Portman plays housewife-turned-reporter Maddie Schwartz as she pursues the case of a missing woman named Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram), whose body was found in a city park lake. As Cleo’s ghost follows Maddie on her quest to uncover the mystery of her death, the two women’s lives become intertwined. The first-look photo of the series is above.
Y’lan Noel, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers, Noah Jupe, Josiah Cross, Mikey Madison, and Pruitt Taylor Vince also star.
Lupita Nyong’o was originally set in the role of Cleo, however she exited the project due to unknown circumstances. “Obi-Wan Kenobi” breakout Ingram was cast as Nyong’o’s replacement.
Portman, Har’el, and Ryan all serve as executive producers, as does Portman’s producing partner Sophie Mas and Har’el’s producing partner Christopher Leggett under their company Zusa. Additional EPs include Bad Wolf America’s Julie Gardner and author Lippman.
“Lady in the Lake” hails from Fifth Season. Nathan Ross and the late Jean-Marc Vallée serve as executive producers for Crazyrose. Layne Eskridge, Amy Kaufman, and Boaz Yakin.
The series production was plagued by an extortion attempt in Baltimore, leading creator Har’el to tweet, “The safety and security of our crew, cast, vendors, production partners are of paramount importance. Production will resume with an increased security procedures going forward. I wanted to post this to say it has been a privilege shooting ‘Lady in the Lake’ in Baltimore. Let me celebrate the beautiful people of Baltimore who come to set and sit with me by the monitor. Our thanks and appreciation to Mayor Brandon M. Scott, the Baltimore Film Office, Maryland Film Office, and the Baltimore Police Department for their incredible support as we continue production in the great Baltimore and surrounding areas.”
Lead actress/producer Portman told L’Officiel that she wanted to take on “Lady in the Lake” as her first TV role due to the personal connection to the plot.
“The story itself was really compelling to me because of two primary things: One is that my grandmother was from Baltimore and about the same age as Maddie during that time period. So there was a real imagination of what it was like to be a woman at that time in that kind of city,” Portman said. “And also the story of Jewish assimilation is interesting to me, and the question of what it’s like when oppressed people can become oppressors.”
She added that filming a series is “much more of a marathon than a sprint,” and took a “very, very long time to shoot.”
The “Thor” alum said, “It’s extremely demanding and extremely emotional. It’s taxing, and you really have to preserve your energy. It’s just really, really consuming. As an actor, you also have a lot more character details because you have so much more time, of course. The format of telling a story in a series format allows for such intricacy of character and so much more space to develop a story. It obviously has been so impressive as a medium. Some of the best storytelling of our times has been in the series format.”
“Lady in the Lake” premieres on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes on Friday, July 19 followed by episodes every Friday through August 23.
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