Natalie Portman is pleased she showed a number of sides to Jackie Kennedy in 'Jackie'.
Natalie Portman
The Oscar-winning actress doesn't like the fact some so-called "feminist" movies only portray female characters as "tough" because she knows that it is more effective to show off their "human" side.
She said of her character in the biopic: "She can be brave, and self-interested, and vulnerable, and super-tough, and sensual, and cold, and all of these things at once because that's how human beings are.
"A lot of films that try for a 'feminist' portrayal will just make a woman be really tough. Well, that's not feminist because it's not allowing the woman to be a human being. No one's just tough."
To research the role, Natalie studied psychology texts of self, identity and memory because she was aware her alter ego found life as the First Lady "complicated".
She said: "It was so complicated for her to have such a public identity. But of course [it was] one that she put out. And one that was manipulated by others."
And the 35-year-old star was fascinated by the way Jackie suppressed her own memories of what happened when her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.
She explained to The Guardian newspaper that Jackie couldn't remember scrambling onto the back of the car immediately after the shooting and added: "But there are images of that, so it happened. How terrifying it is to be in a state where you're doing something but can't remember it and the whole world knows it exists ... [yet] how quickly she overcame it. This survival instinct came in."
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