Natalie Portman may recognize plenty of her public life in Rachel Cusk’s new novel Life of M, but people close to the actress are pushing back on one of the biggest assumptions surrounding the literary controversy.
Sources told Page Six that Portman finds the book “annoying” rather than being furious about it. They also disputed reports that Cusk was a close friend who turned privileged access to Portman’s life into fiction, saying the women have met only a handful of times and do not regularly socialize.
The controversy exists because the similarities between Portman and Cusk’s fictional movie star, M, are unusually specific. M became famous as a child, represents a major brand, lives in a European capital, starred in a ballet film and describes an early movie whose more sexualized material was removed after her mother objected.
Portman has also publicly admired Cusk’s writing for years, selecting her work for Natalie’s Book Club and interviewing her about Second Place. That visible literary connection helped fuel the original speculation that Life of M grew out of a much closer personal relationship than Portman’s sources now say existed.
The Parallels Between M and Portman Are Unusually Specific
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Life of M begins with an unnamed writer telling the famous actress M that she is thinking about writing her autobiography. M responds by asking whether the writer will simply make it up. The UnHerd analysis that helped ignite the speculation in July pointed to a long list of similarities between M’s biography and Portman’s public life.
M was a child actor whose first film immediately changed her life. She is intensely interested in books, serves as the face of a major brand and lives in an unnamed European capital with a river running through it. Portman became famous as a child, runs a book club, has been a longtime Dior ambassador and lives in Paris, where Cusk also resides.
One of the most striking parallels involves M’s first movie. In the novel, M tells the narrator that the original script contained scenes in which her child character appeared to invite sexual interaction with an adult male character. Her mother objected, and those scenes were removed.
Portman’s breakout role came at age 12 in 1994’s Léon: The Professional. She has spoken repeatedly as an adult about being sexualized as a young performer and about her complicated relationship with the movie, while accounts of the production have described her parents pushing for changes to material they considered inappropriate.
The resemblance becomes even more pronounced later in M’s career. The fictional actress stars in a ballet film and undergoes extreme preparation for the role. Portman trained extensively to play ballerina Nina Sayers in Black Swan, which earned her the 2011 Academy Award for Best Actress. Page Six also points to smaller echoes involving luxury advertising, romantic upheaval and the unusual distortions of life that come with extreme celebrity.
Sources Say Portman and Cusk Were Never Close Friends
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One source told Page Six that Portman and Cusk have met perhaps five or six times in total and do not routinely go out or spend time together. The source characterized Portman as a genuine admirer of Cusk’s writing but not a member of her close personal circle.
Another allegation Page Six’s sources reject is that Portman knowingly collaborated with Cusk on the book or gave her permission to construct M from private material. According to the outlet, multiple sources said Portman did not work with Cusk on Life of M.
That account directly complicates some of the earlier literary-world chatter. UnHerd’s July piece described reports that the novel grew out of Cusk’s relationship with Portman and treated the possibility of a friendship as part of its analysis.
Page Six’s newer reporting says the public evidence of their connection: book recommendations, an author interview and mutual residence in Paris should not be confused with a close friendship.
Portman Has Publicly Championed Cusk’s Work for Years
The literary connection between the two women is real even if the friendship is being disputed. Portman selected Second Place as a Natalie’s Book Club pick and later interviewed Cusk, introducing her as one of her favorite writers.
Their conversation covered subjects including art, the role of the artist and the emotional circumstances that shape reading. Portman returned to Cusk’s work in 2024 when she selected Parade for her book club.
The Publisher Does Not Identify M as Natalie Portman
The official Macmillan page presents Life of M as a novel about fame, identity and the gap between public image and private reality. Its description calls M one of the world’s most recognizable movie stars, whose image has been everywhere since childhood. A writer then begins scrutinizing M’s life in an attempt to understand who she really is. The publisher does not identify Portman or describe the novel as her fictionalized biography.
Near the end, M confronts the narrator over what has been written about her. She complains that the portrait contains things she does not recognize and makes her seem incapable of genuine human connection. The narrator’s response is essentially that the character is not literally M at all, that such a portrait could be constructed from publicly available information, observation and imagination.
Page Six spoke with Valerie Stivers, the UnHerd editor who wrote the earlier analysis. Stivers maintained that M is obviously modeled on Portman but argued that Cusk is using the actress for a larger exploration of elite culture, celebrity and the instability of personal identity.
Cusk Has Faced Questions About Real-Life Inspiration Before
The first print run of her 2009 travel memoir The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy was withdrawn and pulped after a person portrayed in the book recognized himself, objected to the characterization and threatened legal action.
Cusk’s career has repeatedly blurred the boundary between autobiography, fiction and the lives of people around her, which is one reason the identity of M has attracted so much attention before Life of M has even reached U.S. bookstores. Life of M is scheduled for U.S. publication on Aug. 25.