If we learned anything from Black Swan it’s that Natalie Portman is a hard worker. Ignoring advice from her costars and family, she killed herself for the perfect performance by training long seven days a week for six full months before filming even started. Clearly a sucker for pain, Portman will be putting in for triple overtime in her upcoming film, where she will direct herself and costar with… herself.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman will star as sister advice columnists Pauline and Esther Friedman, better known as Ann Landers and Dear Abby’s Abigail Van Buren. The Friedman sisters started writing rival agony aunt columns in American newspapers in the mid ’50s, giving out common sense advice in straightforward language.
Portman made her feature directorial debut with the 2015 Israeli drama A Tale Of Love And Darkness, and she also wrote and directed the 2008 short Eve, which starred Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara and Olivia Thirlby. The upcoming as-yet-untitled feature film will explore the bitter personal and professional rivalry between the twin sisters.
The screenplay was written by Katie Robbins, a producer and staff writer on the HBO series The Affair, and the film is being produced by Peter Saraf, whose Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar back in 2006.
No start date has been announced for the film yet, but it’s a pretty good bet that Portman is already working ridiculously hard on it.