Natalie Portman Reportedly Not Happy About Her Uncanny Resemblance to New Rachel Cusk Novel Character

A forthcoming novel is drawing scrutiny for its uncanny resemblance to Natalie Portman's personal history. Sources close to the situation say the actress is well aware of the comparisons being drawn — and isn't thrilled about them.

Natalie Portman has found herself at the center of a literary controversy involving author Rachel Cusk. Cusk is set to release a new novel, "Life of M," chronicling the relationship between a writer and a former child star now living in Paris.

According to Page Six, the fictional former child star — whose life story the book's writer is attempting to chronicle — bears a striking resemblance to Portman, from a failed marriage to intense Method preparation for the film "Black Swan" to a home base in Paris.

The outlet reported that the portrayal of the titular character is far from flattering. Portman is reportedly aware of Cusk's 100-page novel, and insiders say she finds it "annoying."

"The writer and the publisher are narrowly skating the line of not trying to hide who they make it out to be, even if they don't comment on it," a publishing source familiar with the situation said.

Portman rose to fame at age 12 in the 1994 film "Léon: The Professional," a role that has since drawn criticism for its uncomfortably sexualized undertones.

Cusk's protagonist, M, is likewise a former child actor, and tells the narrator "that starring in a film had immediately brought her childhood to an end." In April, Portman opened up during a conversation for Interview magazine, revealing that she endured a "long Lolita phase."

"There's a public understanding of me that's different from who I am," she said. "I've talked about it a little before — about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it."

During filming of "Léon," Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens, intervened to have certain scenes involving her daughter and co-star Jean Reno — who was 44 at the time — cut from the finished film.

A similar dynamic reportedly plays out for M in the novel, according to Page Six, which obtained access to "Life of M."

For her Oscar-winning role as a troubled ballet dancer in "Black Swan," which earned her the Best Actress Academy Award in 2011, Portman spent nearly a year training with the New York City Ballet.

M also stars in a film centered on ballet, training alongside "starved and chain-smoking ballerinas." "Her body began to mimic theirs," Cusk writes. "She became obsessive about her attempts to master certain postures and sequences."

Cusk's protagonist also grapples with romantic instability. "Even love," Cusk writes of M, "has failed to grip her entirely, or perhaps especially love, because it is there that she has felt most distinctly the impossibility of total sincerity."

Portman split from her husband, ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied — father to her two children, 15-year-old Aleph and nine-year-old Amalia — in March 2024, following 11 years of marriage and amid cheating allegations.

The novel even hints at a romance echoing Portman and Millepied's own, which reportedly began on the set of "Black Swan" while Millepied was in a long-term relationship with ballerina Isabella Boylston, who served as Portman's stand-in during filming.

Multiple other details in "Life of M" appear to echo moments from Portman's life. Sources familiar with the matter acknowledge, to varying degrees, that Cusk has crafted a semi-fictional work rooted in the actress's experiences.

The two women aren't strangers.

Back in 2021, Portman selected Cusk's "Second Place" — a title long-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize — as a pick for her online book club, and even hosted an interview with Cusk, at the time calling her one of her "favorite writers."

She later chose Cusk's novel "Parade" as her June 2024 book club selection.

A source in Paris familiar with both women offered a blunt take about Cusk's "Life of M," saying, "Of course Rachel is writing about Natalie! This is how she goes about her writing. Rachel steals from people's lives and mines acquaintances."

Meanwhile, online speculation has floated the idea that Portman may have given Cusk her blessing for a a thinly veiled account of her life. But multiple sources argue that the actress had no involvement in the book's creation.

"Yes, both Rachel and Natalie live in Paris. Yes, there are references to 'Black Swan' and 'Leon,'" another insider said. "But there is no deep exposé. You don't get to the innermost workings of who the character of M is."

Valerie Stivers, a senior editor at UnHerd who broke the story, argues Cusk isn't "dismantling Natalie Portman in the desire to be mean. She's using Natalie as a literary stand-in for elite culture and elite people and as an opportunity to develop her idea that maybe 'the self' doesn't exist."

"Who better than an actress to symbolize that? Is it lies, is it true — it doesn't matter. Cusk thinks we're all actors. She's always playing games with identity," Stivers told Page Six.

Still, Stivers conceded that regardless of the women's personal relationship, the character of M "is obviously based on her, and has captured something real about Portman's quest to be normal."

She continued, "And what Cusk narrator's concludes is that she's not succeeding. Outside of the bounds of art, if they were friends, that conclusion is pretty mean."