Natalie Portman is privately furious over a new novel by her friend Rachel Cusk that appears to be based on her life, according to insiders who spoke to the Daily Mail. The book, Life of M, follows an unnamed writer's attempts to chronicle the life of a film star known only as 'M,' portraying her as an out-of-touch, self-absorbed diva.
Portman, 45, and Cusk, 59, both live in Paris and have been friends, though sources now describe the relationship in the past tense. Portman has long championed Cusk's work through her Instagram book club, choosing Cusk's novel Second Place as one of her picks in 2021 and honoring her again in 2024 for Parade.
Before Parade was published, Portman wrote on Instagram that she was 'forever in awe of Rachel Cusk and the way she disrupts form and the conventions of storytelling.'
Life of M and the character 'M'
Life of M is not due out until later this month, but the 183-page novel has already generated the kind of attention most authors never see before publication. Some have suggested the two women orchestrated the controversy together to help sell copies, though Portman's camp rejects that theory, arguing instead that publishers have stoked a manufactured story to market the book.
A Paris-based friend of Portman told the Daily Mail that Portman is a very private person, which is why she moved to Paris, and that Cusk's book has 'really pissed her off.' The friend said Portman 'thinks it is a real low blow and is horrified about the rumors she was in on the book in some way, which she certainly was not,' adding that the character in the book is 'nothing like her, she is far from a diva, she is a quiet bookworm.' The friend said Portman believes in 'girl power and sisterhood' and sees the book as 'a gross violation of her code,' arguing that women's bonds 'should be nurtured and not manipulated for commerce.' The source added that Portman, who is due to give birth any moment, is trying to focus on her pregnancy and her relationship with her boyfriend, Tanguy Destable, and does not plan to address the book publicly.
Another source told the Daily Mail that Portman is 'such a kind and warm person' and that the character in the book 'bears absolutely no resemblance to her.'
Details that echo Portman's career
Cusk has made no official statement on whether M is based on Portman, and some have defended the book by pointing to details in it that don't match Portman or by noting that the narrator only speculates about the fictional actress's life. But a review of an advance copy obtained by the Daily Mail found repeated parallels.
Early in the book, the narrator describes M appearing in an advertising campaign 'wreathed in pink flowers,' a detail that recalls Portman's Miss Dior campaigns for Christian Dior, where she has been the face of the brand since 2010, including its Rose N'Roses adverts featuring pink roses and peonies. M and the narrator live in an unnamed European capital resembling Paris, where both Cusk and Portman live.
M is written as a former child star who was sexually abused as a child, though there is no evidence this happened to Portman. In the book, sexually suggestive scenes were cut from M's first film after her mother objected, echoing events from Portman's 1994 film Leon: The Professional, made when she was 11 and 12, in which her mother demanded that explicit sequences involving her character be removed. Portman has said she was 'slut-shamed' and harassed after the film's release, and in the novel M is bullied at school and called a 'slut' by other children.
Ballet, jealousy and a famous family
Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Black Swan in 2011, playing a ballet dancer who becomes consumed by jealousy of a rival after winning the lead in Swan Lake. In the book, M also stars in a ballet film, struggling against her teachers' low opinion of her while growing jealous of a less beautiful but more talented actress.
Another passage describes M visiting a museum dedicated to a famous, unnamed family whom Cusk calls 'people of legend, all dead now, but still famous for their style and passion and power,' a description that recalls the Kennedys. Portman played First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the 2016 film Jackie.
A withering portrait
Beyond the biographical echoes, the book paints M as coldly self-absorbed, irritated by ordinary people who cough or talk about themselves near her, and obsessively calculating about how she comes across, even during an interview where she confides she cannot face having real sex after filming a sex scene. M lives in an impersonal mansion described as 'like a big doll's house, with her as a doll inside of it,' surrounded by staff who ensure restaurants reopen and everyone accommodates her. The book suggests M cannot relate to ordinary problems and struggles to be sincere even in love.
The novel ends with the narrator confronted by M, who complains that the book has not made her identifiable but has seriously misrepresented her and is full of factual errors.
Not everyone agrees
Not all sources were sympathetic to Portman, who has two children with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied and is expecting a third child with Destable. One source told the Daily Mail that Portman 'is known for having a tough exterior and being a bit difficult to get along with,' adding that she is 'particular and a perfectionist and has been in the industry forever.' The source said motherhood had softened Portman, who 'knows she sometimes doesn't have the best reputation, but she doesn't seem bothered by it.' The Daily Mail contacted Portman for comment.
Cusk has faced similar criticism before over blending fact and fiction. In 2009, the first print run of her book The Last Supper: A Summer In Italy was pulped after a man threatened a lawsuit, saying he was easily identifiable as a character despite insufficient disguising. In 2017, Scottish writer Damian Barr accused Cusk of drawing on his memoir for her novel Transit, saying, 'Cusk's veil of fiction is thin. Thinner than a thin thing. Diaphanous. Gossamer.' Cusk has also said her 'dearest friend' criticized her for writing Aftermath, about the collapse of her marriage to photographer Adrian Clarke, and that she agreed 'there was so much stuff in my own life that the divide [between life and the book] was completely breached.' The Daily Mail contacted Cusk for comment.
