Natalie Portman Launches Her First Online Acting Course
Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, star of films including “Black Swan” and “Jackie,” is launching her first-ever online class. In the class, priced at $90 for unlimited access, the self-taught thesp will share insights and experiences over a 25-plus year career including case studies on her most notable roles.
Portman’s class is available exclusively through online-education provider MasterClass (at masterclass.com/np). In the course, she shares her various approaches to acting including how to build a character map; how she researchers characters for both historical and fictional roles; how to work with a director; how she builds the “physicality and the consciousness” of each character; and how she defines the voice and dialect nuances for different roles.
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“Acting is a joyful experience. It’s the act of empathy and play,” Portman said in a statement. ”You should be free to be creative, try new things and make mistakes. That is how I learned.”
She continued, “In this class, I’m excited to share what I’ve pieced together over 25 years as an actress — things that have worked for me, things that I’ve seen work well for others, and tips I created to help myself.”
Portman has appeared in more than 40 films, starting at the age of 10 in 1994 in Luc Besson’s “The Professional.” She gained worldwide prominence when she portrayed Queen Amidala in the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy of movies. The Harvard graduate would go on to notch Academy Award and Golden Globe wins for her standout role in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller “Black Swan” (2010), and she earned Oscar nominations for her roles in “Jackie” (2016) and “Closer” (2004).
Most recently, Portman starred in 2018 sci-fi thriller “Annihilation” and played a pop diva on a downward spiral in drama “Vox Lux,” which premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. She executive produced and narrated the documentary “Eating Animals,” released in June 2018, and stars in Noah Hawley’s untitled astronaut drama, set to be released in late 2019.
Portman “approaches each role with a ferociousness and artistry that simply makes her one of the best actresses of her generation — and she’s done it without formal training,” MasterClass co-founder/CEO David Rogier said in a statement. “Her class dives into the craft in ways no other class has done.”
San Francisco-based MasterClass, which launched in 2015, focuses on developing and selling celebrity-led online classes. Other showbiz figures who have inked deals with the company include Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Spike Lee, Jodie Foster, Mira Nair, Ken Burns, Judd Apatow, Shonda Rhimes, Steve Martin and Aaron Sorkin.
MasterClass charges $90 for individual courses and offers a $180 annual plan, which provides unlimited access to all new and existing classes from its lineup of celebrity instructors. The company currently offers more than 50 courses, which can be accessed online at masterclass.com, on Apple TV, and the MasterClass mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
Watch the trailer for Portman’s MasterClass launch:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSpiI21q76E&w=640&h=360]
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