Natalie Portman Addresses ‘Expectations’ At Cannes As Women Buck Unspoken Dress Code

Natalie Portman is addressing the unspoken rules that women face in society — and at one event in particular.

On Saturday, the Oscar winner talked about her new film May December during the Cannes Film Festival, noting that the movie’s theme of “performing femininity” was relevant to the French event itself.

“Performing femininity is … something I’m definitely very curious about,” she said at a press conference for the film. “The different ways that we as women are expected to behave — at this festival, even — compared to men. How we’re supposed to look, how we’re supposed to carry ourselves.”

She added: “The expectations are different on you all the time, and it affects how you behave. Whether you’re buying into it or whether you’re rejecting it or whether you’re doing something in between, you’re definitely defined by the social strictures upon you.”

According to Portman, the “different roles we play in different environments” are of special interest to director Todd Haynes, whose film Carol similarly touched on that idea in 2015.

Natalie Portman said the theme of her new film was relevant to the Cannes Film Festival and its expectations for women.
Natalie Portman said the theme of her new film was relevant to the Cannes Film Festival and its expectations for women.

Vianney Le Caer/Invision/Associated Press

Ironically, multiple women were reportedly denied entry to the Cannes premiere of Carol that year because they didn’t wear high-heeled shoes. Filmmaker Asif Kapadia, for example, said that his wife had been briefly turned away.

“I think everyone should wear flats, to be honest,” actor Emily Blunt said in response to the news at the time, calling it “very disappointing”.

In the years following the Carol premiere, some festival attendees began to push back on event’s apparent expectations for women. Julia Roberts famously walked Cannes’ red carpet barefoot in 2016, while Kristen Stewart publicly ditched her Christian Louboutin heels in 2018.

Speaking alongside Portman, May December co-star Julianne Moore offered her own thoughts on the gender divide.

“Women are not a minority group. We’re 50% of the global population. So it’s important to be treated as such,” Moore said.

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Nick Jonas Describes The Public Mishap That Led Him To Seek Therapy

Nick Jonas said this week that a botched guitar solo at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards led him to see a therapist.

The youngest member of the pop sibling trio the Jonas Brothers discussed stage anxiety on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast Monday, recalling what he called the “tragic guitar solo debacle”.

Jonas was backing up Kelsea Ballerini on her song Peter Pan and he’d rehearsed, he said, for what seemed like a “million times”. He said was “feeling really confident about it.”

“I started off, it’s fine, and as I walked towards her, I just went completely blank and I hit a wrong note and blacked out, basically, and clocked that it was wrong and I couldn’t stop,” the “Jealous” singer said.

Jonas took a ribbing on social media and tried to shrug off the mishap as a “brain fart”. But the effects were long-lasting.

“In retrospect, I can kind of laugh about how big I thought it was. But it did travel more than I wish it would’ve, and it did cause me to go into therapy,” he said.

“To this day and [after] hours of unpacking it, I can’t really figure out exactly what happened, but I was rushed right into a car and right to a plane after it.

“And I looked at my manager, I was like, ‘I think that was bad’. I was in shock, kind of. And then it was like a really traumatic moment that shaped the pressure I put on myself to be perfect and to always be ‘on.’”

Jonas recalled other mishaps, like forgetting lyrics when he performed on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun as a boy, but he called the CMA blunder “the worst moment”.

Here’s a longer look at it, beginning at 1:32:30:

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The Jonas Brothers, who got back together in 2019, are set to tour extensively in August, September and October.

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