It's genuinely hard to find flaws when it comes to Natalie Portman. She's an outward beauty, a bona fide acting talent with an Oscar win to prove it, and she's just a seemingly normal human being; that's a rare combination in Hollywood. Who wouldn't like her? As it turns out, Natalie Portman recently revealed that silver screen legend Lauren Bacall did not like her at all when they worked together. Portman specifically explained:
I must be honest: She did not like me, but I loved her and admired her so much. She sensed in me what I learned later about myself ... that I had a really hard time saying what I wanted and being the boss.
During a recent panel for her film A Tale of Love and Darkness (via Us Weekly), Natalie Portman revealed that the late Lauren Bacall did not take too kindly to her during the production of Portman's 2008 short film, Eve. During the filming of that particular project, Portman was only 26-years-old and had a very hard time being assertive when it came to getting what she wanted out of the cast and crew, and it didn't help that she was already an immense fan of Bacall's to begin with. Bacall subsequently picked up on this aspect of Portman's personality, and would call her out in front of the cast and crew while on the set, causing some serious friction to develop.
However, it doesn't sound like Natalie Portman has any hard feelings about the experience with Lauren Bacall. During the panel, Portman made the notable observation that the late actress was completely right, and she would go on to praise Bacall's work on Eve as uniformly excellent during the production. Bacall had been an active film actress since the earl 1940s; by the time 2008 rolled around she clearly knew her stuff, and she knew how a film set should properly operate.
Natalie Portman didn't get behind the camera for quite some time after the production of Eve, but the experience of working with Lauren Bacall seems to have had a notable impact on her ability to craft a movie. A Tale of Love and Darkness marks her first time stepping behind the camera for a full-length feature, and she has most certainly taken many of the lessons she learned on Eve (often painfully at the hand of Lauren Bacall) and applied them to her latest project.
Check out the trailer for A Tale of Love and Darkness below:
Making a film is a stressful process, and sometimes tempers can get a little bit out of hand. Lauren Bacall didn't take too kindly to Natalie Portman, but in the end it looks like the Star Wars star managed to learn quite a bit from the late, great silver screen icon. In the end that's all we can really hope for in situations such as these.
