Natalie Portman Just Did Right By All Women At The Golden Globes
Natalie Portman didn’t come to play Image by Getty Images
Natalie Portman, resplendent in a decadent velvet gown and her signature face-that-looks-like-it-was-personally-architected-by-God, almost made a huge mistake at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards.
She followed Oprah.
After Oprah Winfrey’s exceptionally barn-burning acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, a speech that brought the entirety of the Hollywood glitterati to its feet with an evangelical zeal reminiscent of the prophet Amos, did anyone really want to hear from Natalie Portman? Natalie Portman, who is best known for being in the worst “Star Wars” movies and engaging in an excruciatingly exhibitionist email correspondence with Jonathan Safran Foer?
Never bet against Natalie Portman.
Appearing reluctantly with Ron Howard to announce the winner for Best Director directly after Oprah, both the director and Portman looked out of place after Winfrey’s speech praising women’s fight for equality throughout history. But as the pair prepared to deliver the award, Portman quietly said, “Here are the all-male nominees.”
All.
Male.
“The all-male nominees.”
This will teach me to doubt Natalie Portman. This will teach us all to doubt Natalie Portman.
In the moment allotted to her, the actress managed to take a ruthless jab at patriarchal systems without stealing focus from Oprah’s success. It was the classiest way imaginable to humble a group of powerful men at the height of their careers. A tiny castration! A ritual, symbolic bloodletting. A circumcision, if you will.
And in the time since I began writing this piece, the slighted director of “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig, beat out male-helmed movies to win the award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.
It looks like time really is up.
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
