Natalie Portman’s pop-star persona in “Vox Lux” has already earned comparisons to Lady Gaga for her eye-catching aesthetic, but the film’s writer-director has a different performer in mind: “If anything, I feel like the character’s closest to Kanye West,” Brady Corbet told Vulture at the film’s AFI FEST screening. Portman agrees: “Oh! That’s a good example!” she said. “That’s funny that he said that! I wasn’t thinking Kanye but now that he said it I totally could see it.”
“I love his work,” Corbet said. “I’m sort of fascinated by his persona. I don’t know what to take seriously or not, to be honest, so I don’t ever find anything he says to be particularly offensive…hopefully he likes it.”
“The idea was that the character would be sort of an amalgamation of many, many, many, different real-life personages,” the filmmaker added. “There are certain character traits or parts of the story that evoke real-life people. You never want people to take the comparison the wrong way. The character is a fictional character so I wouldn’t end up insulting anyone.”
Portman concurs with this point as well. “I don’t really see it as one [person] … I really see different sides because, you know, the relationship with her sister is different, having a kid and having this period where she’s having troubles with substances, and, like, the desire to shock,” she said.
Neon will release “Vox Lux” on December 7.