Natalie Portman channels a first lady’s resolve in ‘Jackie’

NEW YORK — Had Natalie Portman had an opportunity to speak to Jacqueline Kennedy before the former first lady’s death in 1994, the conversation likely would have centered on very domestic matters.

“The most important thing for me would have been how she managed to raise her children so successfully, considering they were in the public eye and had experienced such trauma and tragedy at such a young age,” the Oscar-winning actress says. “They turned into such incredible people, and obviously Mrs. Kennedy was responsible for that.”

Portman adds, “I also would have liked her perspective on what it felt like to be a woman at the time, with so much intelligence and talent, but what she felt her limitations were.”

Portman portrays Kennedy in the film “Jackie” (now in theaters), a combination of historical fact and fictionalized assumptions about the few days surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas in 1963.

A key theme of “Jackie” is the first lady’s ability to focus immediately on how she could preserve the Kennedy administration’s legacy — despite its short tenure.

In doing her research to play the role, Portman says, “It was really impressive learning about Jackie Kennedy in this period in particular because it was really the most traumatic thing you can think of to happen to anyone.

“She literally had her husband killed next to her and was holding his head as he died in front of the whole world. Everyone was scared. The entire country was scared, but who could be more scared than she was? Yet somehow she found the resolve to organize this very impressive tribute to him. The way she organized the funeral procession and all the pageantry connected to that. … Then, of course, she gave those defining interviews about him ” — with author Theodore H. White, fictionalized into Billy Crudup’s character in “Jackie” — “that cemented his legacy.”

Portman believes that Mrs. Kennedy’s approach, tirelessly throwing herself into crafting the JFK funeral events, “was, in one way, the way she helped cope with her grief — at least in the beginning. When you have something like that to focus on, it does help as something of a distraction, though naturally that grief is never far from your mind and emotions.”

While Mrs. Kennedy comprehended that “this was such a private tragedy,” Portman says, “It also was very public and had meaning for the entire country and the whole world. The country needed to move on, and she clearly understood that — and the proper funeral would help with that.”

Beyond all that, Portman was interested in what must had to have been swirling through Jackie Kennedy’s mind as she experienced those terrible days following Nov. 22, 1963.

“More than anything, you can tell that she had a deep love for him, despite his flaws and his straying. But she also identified herself mainly as his wife. When he got killed, she not only lost the man she loved, but she had to face some very harsh aspects of reality beyond that. She had to move out of the White House, prepare to take care of her children as a single parent — but she also faced an identity crisis.

“I’m sure she wondered, ‘Who am I if I’m no longer the president’s wife?’ ”

It was Jackie Kennedy who coined the term “Camelot” — inspired by the hit Broadway musical — to capture the essence of how she wanted her husband’s presidency to be remembered.

Her co-star Crudup reflects on the role of the media in America, then and now. “When you have freedom of the press and you have people in political power, those political folks are going to spend a lot of time trying to frame the story,” he says. “Yet, because the press is meant to be there, it creates an interesting struggle — and that’s a struggle we need. Of course, back then, the balance of power was more in favor of the political class — as we show in the film ,with Jackie Kennedy being given editing power over her interviews.”

Yet Crudup says, “Sadly. one of the biggest changes I’ve noticed in the press over the past 30 years is our ability — as consumers of news — to take the time to absorb various stories. Because of that, we’ve lost in-depth stories in print. We’ve certainly lost it on television. You need time to tell a human story because things are often very complicated.

“One thing this film does so well is to take time with small moments to create a bigger moment. It was a national story, but it also was a very personal story. And that’s the part that was lost on us back then in 1963, which, I believe, this film has captured and showcases.”