(Credits: Far Out / Georges Biard)
Wed 25 June 2025 2:30, UK
To be a great actor, you have to be intelligent enough to be able to parse the layers to interpret a character, potentially for one that is far removed from yourself. It understandably will require empathy and emotional understanding, and these are skills best honed from being an active reader. To read is to open yourself up to new perspectives, and for Natalie Portman, reading is a huge part of her life—she’s even written a children’s book, Natalie Portman’s Fables.
She might be a busy Hollywood star, but Portman still finds the time to run her own book club. Clearly, there’s always time to read, even if you’re one of the most successful actors of a generation. In an interview with Dior, Portman selected five books that she urges everyone to read, ranging from cinematic reference texts to powerful essay collections.
She started by selecting Todd Haynes’ Exhibition Catalogue, a filmmaker whom she deeply admires. Known for making 1990s staples like Safe (one of Portman’s favourites) and Velvet Goldmine, Haynes cast the star in his 2023 film May December, much to her delight. “It’s just an incredible way to see the ideas that informed his filmmaking,” she explained, referring to the rich collection of cinematic images compiled in the book, which illuminate the influences on his vast oeuvre.
Portman then picked out a book by Susan Sontag, whose studies of art, feminism, culture, and illness, to name just a few, are some of the most acclaimed nonfiction writings of the 20th century and, frankly, essential reading. On Photography is the one that Portman loves most, however, calling it “the most compelling thing I’ve read about how we consume images… how we look at art”. She added, “Her ideas are so precise. It all feels logical, but I’d never have thought of it on my own, which is the greatest gift a writer can give you”.
Sontag is best known for writing ‘Notes on Camp’, her seminal essay that inspired the 2019 Met Gala theme, and she dedicated much of her work to exploring the way that humans interact with art. In On Photography, the writer dissects the way that images are becoming increasingly saturated in the modern world, often leading to desensitisation, which Portman finds particularly poignant.
Up next was “one of the most miraculous books”, the actor claimed to have read—When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut. Published in 2021, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, with Portman explaining, “It’s the biographies interwoven of people who discovered incredible things and their passion. It combines with the kind of madness of the obsession of that pursuit, and some of their discoveries led to the destruction of the world in many ways.”
Blending scientific stories with deeply human studies of obsession and intensity, the novel is deeply philosophical while blurring the lines of genre, mixing non-fiction and fiction with a distinctly meta edge.
Her other fiction pick was My Brilliant Friend by the mysterious Italian novelist and connisseur of kitschy book covers for her novels, Elena Ferrante. It is a highly acclaimed study of female friendship and coming of age, beginning in 1950s Naples. Portman found herself addicted to the book, which is the first in the Neapolitan series, published in 2011. “It reminded me of reading in my childhood, because I just could not put them down,” she revealed, noting, “They’re just the most alive characters, and it’s the truest portrait of female friendship I’ve ever read”.
Finally, she wrapped up with Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit, an inspiring tale of holding on to the light in a complex and dark world. “This is a book completely dedicated to hope, which I think is so inspiring. She argues that “change is possible” by pointing to the book’s dedication that highlights the achievements of certain political movements, like MeToo, suggesting that progress is imminent despite the challenges we face.
The five books Natalie Portman wants everyone to read:
- Exhibition Catalogue – Todd Haynes
- On Photography – Susan Sontag
- When We Cease to Understand the World – Benjamín Labatut
- My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
- Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities – Rebecca Solnit
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