Jackie : Her accent is terrible!

I feel like I'm in a surreal land. I wanna shout, "The emperor has no clothes on!" as everyone around seems to be giving Portman outlandish accolades for her accent & portrayal of Jackie.

Her accent is the worst imitation of Jackie I've ever heard! It truly is. Have these other people never heard Jackie? The sounds coming out of Portman's mouth sound like she's got a serious medical condition. Jackie was merely really feminine and spoke with a soft voice. Other than that, she spoke like a normal person!

I think it's just that Portman is popular right now, so people seem to think more highly of her work, just because they like her.

Agree completely. My husband and I looked at each other in disbelief when we first heard her speak in the trailer. It sounds completely off, yet so many people are saying she nailed it. I'm glad we're not the only ones who think this.

I'm currently watching her appearance on "The Tonight Show" around Thanksgiving, and they showed a clip and I was floored. Absolutely abominable. I was shocked!

Also agree. I felt like I was watching Carol Channing perform Jackie. Natalie Portman was AWFUL, her accent was ATROCIOUS, and her mannerisms were ALIEN.

Thank you. Some people here are speech professional wannabes.

But even there, you saw Jackie looking like a real person. She had facial expressions like a normal person, and spoke with emotion. The most jarring scenes were the ones where they were showing Natalie Portman giving that White House tour and they oversold her putting on the TV-ready persona and not looking natural at all.

Her fake accent made her sound like a slow thinking mental patient trying to imitate Marilyn Monroe.

tdonnelly-4 - The only resemblance I can tell after watching that video and comparing is the tone of voice. Otherwise, she talks to slow, calm and without expression.

she actually sounded pretty close
Jackie and Marlyin both had that wisp in their voices

I've just watched the original Jackie Kennedy showing round the Whitehouse and I reckon NP pretty well nails the accent.

Agreed. She sounded mentally handicapped.

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http://viverdecinema.blogspot.com.br/

I watched Jackie's original tour of the White House as an adolescent, and I was (then) aghast at how she spoke! Natalie Portman was perfect in her imitation of Jackie. Those who criticize this need to do some research!

I'm watching it right now, and there's something very robotic about Natalie's acting. I started looking for real Jackie videos and she sounded robotic aswell. I guess it worked. But is just not interesting for a movie character.

I couldn't agree more, Natalie Portman is one of the worst actors in existence and this was a terrible performance with a horrific accent that truly sounds nothing like Jackie O.

Hmmm according to linguists it was spot on.

http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/7/14442410/jackie-kennedy-accent-natalie-portman

You people are idiots. It's a perfect Atlantic-NE accent.

I agree with the OP. I find her imitation of Jackie's manners and way of speaking - and not just the accent - sometimes almost painful to watch. It is one thing for an actor to try to adopt the accent and manners of the character she plays in order to be true to actual life and history. But if one does it poorly or carries it to excess it becomes mimicry rather than acting. It might be compared to someone mimicking a foreigner by exaggerating his accent and pronunciations with the intention to mock or ridicule (like Pep Le Pew in the cartoons), or students trying to imitate the manners and speech of their school principal to generate a laugh. Of course, I am sure that was not the intention of the filmmakers or of Natalie Portman. However, the way she acted and especially spoke was so exaggerated and unnatural that it came dangerously close to that.

She sounds exactly right to me listening to the woman herself

I couldn't make it 20 minute into this movie because of her accent.

When you listen to the real Jackie speaking and compare it to what Natalie did, she did a great job.