'Lady in the Lake' - Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram

(L to R) Moses Ingram and Natalie Portman star in Apple TV+’s ‘Lady in the Lake’.

Premiering on Apple TV+ beginning July 19th is the new limited series ‘Lady in the Lake,’ which is based on the novel of the same name.

Written and directed by Alma Har’el (‘Honey Boy’), the series stars Oscar-winner Natalie Portman (‘Black Swan,’ ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’), Moses Ingram (‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’), Y’llan Noel (‘The First Purge’), Brett Gelman (‘Boy Kills World’), Noah Jupe (‘A Quiet Place’), Byron Bowers (‘Concrete Cowboy’), Josiah Cross (‘King Richard’), Wood Harris (‘Creed’), Angela Robinson (‘Mea Culpa’), Pruitt Taylor Vince (‘Constantine’), and David Corenswet (‘Superman’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram about their work on ‘Lady in the Lake,’ their approach to their characters, similarities between the two women, and working with director Alma Har’el.

Natalie Portman in ‘Lady in the Lake,’ premiering July 19, 2024 on Apple TV+.

Moviefone: To begin with, Natalie, can you talk about your approach to playing Maddie, a character who is really discovering who she is for herself as the series unfolds?

Natalie Portman: Well, I think that something that’s exciting with Maddie is she’s someone who’s bottled up her personality for so long that it kind of explodes and then she kind of overdoes everything. So, it was exciting to have that kind of exploration. It was very different because I’ve never done a series before, so I’ve never had that amount of space to explore a character. Alma created incredible space for us to improvise, find detail, play, and it was fun. Just with creating the character and with other actors who also had created these very detailed characters, she would leave the end of takes open that we could just keep improvising back and forth. There were some treasures that came out of that, and beautiful moments that she just allowed us to have. You must have some breathing room to find those things.

Moses Ingram in ‘Lady in the Lake,’ premiering July 19, 2024 on Apple TV+.

MF: Moses, can you talk about your approach to playing Cleo and her motivation to protect her family and give them a better life?

Moses Ingram: I mean, I don’t have children of my own, but I can see in mothers around me, my own mother, that you always want yours to have better than you did. I think that’s certainly the thing that drives her. When life is hard, people make decisions that other people might not understand. I think that’s kind of the position that Cleo is in. But she does it for her kids, for sure.

(L to R) Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram in ‘Lady in the Lake,’ premiering July 19, 2024 on Apple TV+.

MF: Maddie and Cleo are completely different people, but at the same time are very similar in a lot of ways. Can you talk about that?

MI: I mean, women in the 60s, they couldn’t even have credit cards without a man attached. Trying to make very simple decisions like getting rid of your car, for example. Things like that make it very hard to get a leg up on your own. I think that’s where these two women meet, and I think that’s where the universality lies between the two of them. Obviously, it’s different because of the intersectionality of it all, but alike and different. I think there’s space for many women to see themselves here.

Natalie Portman with creator, showrunner, executive producer, writer and director Alma Har’el for 'Lady in the Lake,' premiering July 19, 2024 on Apple TV+.

(L to R) Natalie Portman with creator, showrunner, executive producer, writer and director Alma Har’el for ‘Lady in the Lake,’ premiering July 19, 2024 on Apple TV+.

MF: Finally, Natalie, can you talk about working on set with director Alma Har’el and collaborating with her to execute her vision for this project?

NP: Alma is extraordinary. I mean, I was in awe of her every day. She comes with full energy, full positivity, full creativity, a very precise and beautiful vision that she communicates well, creating space for other people to participate and collaborate, and then managed to do that every day for months and months and months and months. She wrote everything. I mean, she had a team that she wrote with, but she led the writing. She directed every episode. She cut everything. I mean, she’s a boss. I am in awe of her and love her dearly.

TV-MA1 SeasonsJuly 18th, 2024

When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore in 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Read the Plot

What is the plot of ‘Lady in the Lake’?

In 1960s Baltimore, an investigative journalist (Natalie Portman) working on an unsolved murder, clashes with a woman (Angela Robinson) working to advance the agenda of the city’s black community. The protagonist ditches her doting husband (Brett Gelman) and big Pikesville home to pursue a career as a newspaper reporter. She becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of two separate killings: eleven-year-old Tessie Fine and a bartender named Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram).