Natalie Portman Says Men and Women “Are Expected to Behave” Differently at Cannes

Natalie Portman gets real about the difference in society’s expectations of women versus men and she doesn’t hold back. While attending a press conference to promote his upcoming film, May Decemberat the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the actress reflected on some of the film’s themes while touching on how women are often held to a much higher standard, especially at events like Cannes.

The whole film is very much about performance and the different roles we play in different environments, for different people, even ourselves,” says Portman, who plays an actress studying the role of a schoolteacher (played by Julianne Moore). is something that intrigued and intrigued me.

The actress continued, “This aspect, even here we as women are expected to behave differently in this festival even compared to men.” How we should look, how we should carry ourselves. Expectations are different on you all the time and they affect how you behave, whether you agree to them, whether you reject them, or whether you do anything in between, “Portman explains.” You are definitely defined by the social structure on you.”

As well as addressing the theme of societal pressures, the film, centered on Moore’s relationship with a husband 20 years her junior (played by Charles Melton), also explores the dynamics of a couple with a significant age gap.

The age gap is one thing, but the relationship between an adult and a child is something else entirely, Moore shared during the panel when asked about the film’s portrayal of the relationship. Her transgression, I believe, personally, is so great that she buries it in her own identity, in her own performative femininity.