The Lady in the Lake Director Shares Insight Into Natalie Portman's Complicated Character

Summary Lady in the Lake, based on Laura Lippman's novel, follows Maddie's journey from housewife to investigative journalist in 1960s Baltimore.

Natalie Portman's TV debut brings depth to Maddie's character, exploring themes of race, gender, and injustice in the series.

Director Alma Har'el delves into the personal and emotional aspects of the characters, emphasizing compassion and complexity in the storytelling.

Lady in the Lake is set in 1960s Baltimore and follows two women, Maddie Schwartz, and Cleo Sherwood. Maddie decides to leave her family in order to pursue her long-forgotten dream of being a writer and the disappearance of a young girl propels her forward. Maddie becomes obsessed with investigating both this and the murder of a mysterious woman found in the lake sending her down a dark path with potentially deadly consequences.

Lady in the Lake is based on Laura Lippman's 2019 novel of the same name. Lady in the Lake is Natalie Portman's debut as the lead in a television series and she brings depth to the character of Maddie as well as determination, naivete, and underlying darkness. Alma Har’el adapted the novel and directed all seven episodes of the series, exploring themes of race, gender disadvantage, entitlement, and injustice that tie it not only to the 1960s but the realities of today.

Related Lady In The Lake Trailer Reveals Natalie Portman's TV Debut In Apple TV+ Series The full-length trailer for Lady in the Lake shines a light on Natalie Portman’s television debut and teases the twisty, wild mystery to come.

Screen Rant interviewed Lady in the Lake series creator and director Alma Har’el. She explained what drew her to the story and themes in the Lady in the Lake novel, including her own identity. Har’el also broke down how what propels Portman's character out of her comfort zone into this dangerous world of investigative journalism.

Alma Ha'rel Explains Her Directing Process: "I Was Just Trying To Really Have Compassion To Each Character"

Image via Apple TV+

Har’el revealed what attracted her to the themes and story of Lippman's novel. She discussed her own identity as a Jewish woman and the duality that comes with as well as her relationship with her husband, Byron Bowers, who plays Slappy in the series.

Alma Har’el: I think everything you just said, right. How relevant it is in our life today. I'm obviously a Jewish woman with white skin living the duality of being persecuted, racism, but also being an oppressor. A person who comes from Israel lives just a long life of seeing trauma, generational trauma of a nation clashes with oppression and all of the things that we're witnessing and the violence that it creates. And then coming here as an immigrant and understanding my place within this society, my partner being a black man by the name of Byron Bowers, who plays Slappy Dark Johnson in the show and the challenges we have. It's all of that. It's everything you just said. It's very personal to me, and I think to the characters in this show, to take a story that has historical context but is also so present in our lives and make it personal. Try to not make it preachy. Try to not give long speeches about identity politics and instead live it. Really go through it see what that feels like to a person to go through the world with that duality, like I said, because nothing is simple. Everything can lead to a very superficial view of humanity when you just describe things or isolate them from the emotional context, the survival instinct. So I just try to paint a picture that is a little more human. I think every character beyond just these actors that I got so fortunate to work with, each one of them is a star. I was just trying to really have compassion to each character. There are no purely bad people in this show. Everybody has a point. Everybody has a perspective and something that informs why they behave the way they behave.

Lady In the Lake Follows "A Woman That Very Much Has Been Hurt" By Secrets In Her Past

Image via Apple TV+

Har’el also offered insight into Portman's character Maddie and how her ambition sets her on a dangerous path. Har’el shared how Maddie's lack of understanding of the world she is stepping foot in can be damaging as her pursuit of her dream begins somewhat selfishly, but forces her to delve deeper into a larger world than she could have imagined.

Alma Har’el: Well, I think we see a woman that very much has been hurt, been traumatized by a secret in her past that slowly reveals itself. That damaged her sense of self and has taken her dreams away and her sense of wonder about life. She has a breakthrough that is sort of really generated by a big tragedy that rattles the whole town and affects both women's lives, which are set on a collision course as a result of that. But as she tastes that freedom and as she comes out of her own self-absorbed reality, we realize that the implications of her lack of ability to understand the context of her life and the neighborhoods she goes into, the lives she's trying to penetrate, that the pain of others can benefit her in a way that is damaging to them. Just kind of slowly unraveling that situation through really a murder mystery of whodunit. But it's the context I think that gives it this sort of, I guess you're like watching something and you never know what's going to be the next turn. At the end you, in a way, I'm not saying at the end of the show, I'm just saying at the end of life, you can understand that character is destiny, as they used to say. So you have to attend to the subconscious in order to survive.

About Lady In The Lake

Close

When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore in 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course.

Check out our other Lady in the Lake interview with Byron Bowers, Josiah Cross, and Elon Noel.

Lady in the Lake debuts on Apple TV+ on July 19.

Source: Screen Rant Plus