Natalie Portman famously saw a twisted version of herself in mirrors as part of her Oscar-winning performance as a tortured ballerina in Black Swan.
She may experience the same queasy sensation if Unherd writer Valerie Stivers is to be believed, as she suggests in a July 17 column that Cusk’s upcoming novel, Life of M, is a thinly-veiled portrait of Portman.
And Portman, despite apparently being friends with Cusk and a cheerleader for her novels, may not be flattered with what she sees in the literary mirror. “Chatter in New York literary circles says that Cusk’s upcoming novel, Life of M, is based on Cusk’s relationship with Portman,” Stivers reveals in her Unherd column, entitled A Novelist’s Dark Portrait of Natalie Portman — Rachel Cusk’s New Book Mines the Actress’s Life.
The novel, set for an Aug. 25, 2026 release and available for pre-order, centers on a famous actress, M, and a writer tapped to chronicle her life amid the glamor of olive groves, beaches and from behind the tinted windows of limousines.
“The movie star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time. Her image is everywhere. It has been like that since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the same places as real people. She may meet her friends or collect her children from school or walk her dogs as they do. But it seems the rules of reality have melted away,” a synopsis from Macmillan Publishers, which is releasing Cusk’s next novel in the U.S. market, states on its website.
“Now, a writer has decided to pay close attention to M’s life in the hope of understanding who she really is. It is hard not to feel ugly next to M, hard not to feel insignificant. But what truths ― about the very experience of living ― might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture?,” the synopsis continues.
Stivers, who like Portman lives in Paris, after apparently getting a peek at a pre-publication copy, hints in her column “a Cusk book about you is never going to be flattering,” and that the Hollywood actress has concluded as much.
“M’s key biographical information is very similar to Portman’s. The actress’ dissatisfaction and betrayal at the finished product, as recorded in the final pages of the book, is also said to be true to life,” Stivers writes.
Portman is certainly a fan of Cusk’s novels. In a March 2021 Elle magazine column where Portman, herself a best-selling author, was asked to recommend other books, she cited Cusk. On which books surprised Portman, she answered: “That you can know much about a protagonist through the people around them: The Outline Trilogy (Outline, Transit, and Kudos) by Rachel Cusk.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to representatives for Portman for comment.
