Natalie Portman is back in a big way. After largely staying away from mainstream film roles for the past few years, the Oscar-winning actor is starring in her most-publicized and buzzy role since Black Swan by portraying the late Jacqueline Kennedy in the new biopic, Jackie. The film focuses on a particularly trying time in the former First Lady's life, largely taking place in the difficult days following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. Critics are over the moon when it comes to Portman's take on the American icon, but what does Jackie Kennedy's family think of Jackie ?
It's hard to say. When it comes to close family members who knew Jackie Kennedy, who passed away in 1994, there aren't many who are still around. With her husband John, Jackie had a total of four children, but only one survives today: Caroline Kennedy. However, Caroline currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and she has presumably been a little busy with her duties overseas to comment publicly on the film — if she's even had time to see it. The man Jackie married five years after John's death, Aristotle Onassis, died in 1975. He shared no children with Jackie, but had two from a previous relationship. Both are deceased. Neither of Jackie's most famous living relatives, Maria Shriver and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have responded to Bustle's requests for comment.
So really, it's hard to say what any of Jackie Kennedy's family thinks of the new movie about her life — or if any of them have even seen it. But one person who was committed to honoring the late First Lady's legacy in the film is Portman, who went through a lot of research to uncover who she felt was the real Jackie Kennedy. "When she was doing interviews, [her voice] was a lot more girly and soft, and then when you hear her talking to [reporter Arthur M.] Schlesinger at home, you hear the ice in the glass clinking and the voice is a little deeper and her wit comes out more," she told Business Insider. "So you get this real sense of the two sides."
Admirers of Jackie Kennedy should be on the lookout in the coming weeks to see if her surviving family members agree with what the critics are saying; which is that Jackie beautifully honors this iconic and important woman.
Images: Fos Searchlight Pictures
