The Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass was one of the masterclasses I was most looking forward to.
But was the Natalie Portman MasterClass worth it?
Did my favourite actor’s masterclass live up to my expectations?
Either take a 3-day free trial with MasterClass using this link, or let’s find out in this Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass Review!
Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass Review
I’m not an actor. But once upon a time I went to drama school and thought I would become an actor.
Even though I don’t actively act anymore, I’m still fascinated by the process.
And to see my favourite actress of all time, Natalie Portman, giving a MasterClass on acting, I was ecstatic.
I was a little disappointed before watching any of the modules that the run time is one of the shortest in the MasterClass catalogue. Under three hours.
Obviously the value is all about the message, but I could watch Natalie Portman all day so I was hoping for more footage.
Having said that though, as an actor or someone in the arts the cumulative run time and the value packed into the lessons of all the courses (which include greats like Jodie Foster, Samuel L. Jackson, and Martin Scorsese) is incredible.
So I definitely recommend you invest in the All Access Pass rather than purchase a single class.
And shorter run time aside, the Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass, for me, has easily turned out to be the best acting MasterClass yet (and it’s up against strong contenders), possibly twinned with the Helen Mirren one.
What you get in the Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass:
- 20 video modules of Natalie Portman talking directly to us and teaching us the best things she’s learned about the craft of acting across her career.
- A gorgeous workbook stuffed full of acting exercises and things to research.
- Office Hours where you can submit a question to Natalie and she might answer with a video of her own.
- A thriving student community to put you in touch with fellow ambitious filmmakers.
As with all the MasterClasses, you have an assignment to complete.
Each module ends with homework, exercises, and further research you should complete to get you closer to meeting your assignment and achieving your acting goal.
The assignment in the Natalie Portman MasterClass is based on crafting a personal acting process.
This assignment compliments those in the other acting and filmmaking masterclasses.
If you’re enrolled in several of the filmmaking classes, you’ve basically got you’re own filmmaking school with the greatest mentors in the world at the click of a button.
In the introduction, Natalie says that what she works with, the stuff that helps her act, and what she wants to share with you is a bag of tools and tricks she’s picked up.
It’s not a rigid procedure, but a bunch of different elements that don’t need to be used every time.
She shares some of her aims with the course and they definitely sounded exciting: how to prepare for your character, how to map out your character’s journey, how to think about your character’s relationship to other roles in the film, how to relate to your director, how to audition, the way you do green screen, how to use your physicality to affect your character… but mainly it’s about how you can create your own set of tools and influences that will work uniquely for you.
This all sounded exciting and the masterclass definitely exceeded my expectations.
The first module gets right into it, right into the stuff you really want to know: the process on getting to know your character.
This was fascinating and all about Natalie’s process of breaking down a script and the do’s and don’ts of establishing not only an overarching character arc but how to work in smaller shifts so you can identify character changes chronologically on a scene level.
We also get to hear the four questions Natalie uses in order to establish the psychology of the character and how they interact in the world, in different situations, and with others.
Then Natalie keeps digging deeper and deeper.
It’s like an onion, we’re peeling away until we get to the core of the character’s being.
Accompanying this lesson, you have a bunch of worksheets that are designed to get you thinking about, understanding, and connecting with the psychological complexity of the character you’re playing – even if you don’t currently have a role at the moment, you’re encouraged to pick a character you’ve wanted to play and to deconstruct them following the different worksheets.
Remember this is all about establishing your acting process and finding out what methods work for you in honing your craft, so even if you’re not currently in a production this is a great activity to keep yourself sharp and get used to thinking about these very important elements.
Following immediately on from this, you get an entire module dedicated to character research and the tools and strategies Natalie employs when it comes to creating her character, with examples from her roles in several of her films. This is particularly rich in research advice when it comes to playing historical characters.
The module on developing your characters physicality was fascinating.
In addition to practical tips for getting the physicality of your character right, you’ll also hear about a bunch of eclectic anecdotes. For example, what’s the relationship between Ashtanga yoga and playing a figure like Ann Boleyn?
One of my favourite modules, the module that made me basically salivate with excitement, was the scene study of physical gestures.
I LOVE a good scene analysis (it was also my favourite part of the Scorsese and Jackson masterclasses) because you can understand the lessons so much better when you’re seeing them in action.
In this module, Natalie analyses and breaks down three performances that inspired her and she really takes apart their physical movements.
It’s an absolute joy to watch and worth the price of entry alone.
My only wish was that this module was longer.
My personal favourite analysis was Natalie breaking down one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great roles.
The Black Swan case study was also a real treat and a must-watch for any actor who feels they need to improve the physical side of their craft.
Another superb module, one that makes the Natalie Portman MasterClass excellent value for money, was the one on dialect coaching.
If you’ve ever found your roles that require foreign languages or accents different from your own to be challenging, this module is a fantastic jumping off point to getting you to improve that.
This module comes primarily in the form of Natalie dialoguing with her dialect coach, Tanya Blumstein, the one that helped Natalie achieve her impeccable accent in the role of Jackie Kennedy.
This isn’t just a cursory conversation about dialect though – there are real tips here, everything from warming up to how sounds inform the character to actual nitty-gritty info about vowels and consonants.
It was really nice seeing it put into action too when Tanya makes Natalie do French accent exercises and they talk about all the different muscles the face uses for that.
This was so much fun.
I particularly liked all the little linguistic hacks that get you into the heart of the language (e.g. Finding out how the language says the word “um” will get you to the heart of one the most common sounds peculiar to that language).
I also thought it was wonderful to get a list of words and phrases to ask people to say when you want to learn their accent (e.g. If you want an East London accent or a rural Texas accent or the accent of an Irish Catholic from Stanton Island, you’ll ask people from those areas to say certain specific words).
There’s also an entire module just dedicated to going through dialect lessons learned from Jackie, using that film as a case study.
Another wonderful educational experience well worth the price of the masterclass alone.
After going through the specifics of dialect coaching, Natalie pulls back a bit and returns us to the overarching missions of this masterclass: getting your process nailed.
And she does this in an incredibly grounding module on how to work on set and all the different emotional processes involved, everything from how to work with the camera and crew to how to handle your vulnerabilities and keep your energy up over a long day of shooting.
I really loved how many of the lessons Natalie teaches you in this module are really mindfulness lessons – and as someone who has been on camera and done similar mindfulness exercises before, they definitely help – and I’m eager to add the rest of Natalie’s advice to my arsenal.
Another great module was the one that details Natalie’s process for working on camera, everything from how to deal with multiple takes to maintaining emotional continuity and working with others actors and more.
The three parts on working with directors was illuminating.
I personally enjoyed hearing the specific lessons Natalie has learned from Darren Aronofsky, Mike Nichols, Anthony Minghella, and Pablo Larrain.
But mostly I enjoyed the case study on working with Terrence Malick.
I left these modules feeling like the value in them might even be greater for budding directors than actors – because you’ll learn everything from an actor’s point of view that is unique and conducive to eliciting a great performance.
The module on working with the set, props, and camera was a fantastic treat.
Natalie didn’t go as in-depth as Ron Howard (seriously, he put a lot of footage out on this), but as a module that fits into an overarching acting masterclass, it could not be faulted.
This was wonderful watching Natalie interact with the set designer and cinematographer – the questions she asks and the answers she gets were simple yet brilliant and you can really get a good sense of this part of the acting process by watching what Natalie is doing here.
What’s Natalie Portman like as a teacher?
In a few words:
Inspiring. Refreshing. Encouraging. Familiar. And just plain fun!
It’s like sitting across from an older wiser friend who has learned their craft through doing, rather than going to film school, and has spent a lot of time thinking about how best to communicate that which has become natural over many years.
Natalie takes the complicated parts of the acting craft and makes them seem easy. Obviously, as we all know, it’s far from easy. So putting in the hard work is going to be on you!
Check out the Natalie Portman Acting MasterClass here.
The Natalie Portman Teaches Acting MasterClass is tied with Helen Mirren’s MasterClass as my favourite acting masterclass.
And as an overall favourite the Natalie Portman MasterClass definitely slides into my top ten (considering the calibre of the other masterclasses and how close each come to each other, that’s definitely high praise).
So definitely check it out. If you can spring for it, my recommendation is to go for the All Access Pass.
Happy learning and acting!
