The perfect team! While Benjamin Millepied and wife Natalie Portman work in different creative outlets, the couple will always help each other shine.
“Well, [Natalie and I] share what we’re working on, but we’re like two artists with different ambitions and interests,” the choreographer, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 20, while promoting his new film, Carmen, with leading lady Melissa Barrera. “But of course we share what’s going on, and I’m sending her a new script that I finished.”
Millepied and the Thor: Love and Thunder star, 41, began dating in 2009 after starring alongside one another in Black Swan. The pair announced their engagement in late 2010 and welcomed their first child, son Aleph, the following year. Portman and Millepied tied the knot in August 2012 in an intimate wedding near Big Sur, California. In 2017, the duo expanded their family with daughter Amalia.
The French dancer was a choreographer for the ballet-inspired drama, in which he also appeared as David. Portman, meanwhile, earned her first Academy Award for her emotional performance in the thriller, taking home the trophy for Best Actress in 2011.
While reflecting on how she and her husband bonded on set, the V for Vendetta star recalled the moment she knew he was The One. “I think I was in, like, dreamland. So, it was pretty … it seemed pretty fun the whole time,” Portman said on the SiriusXM Town Hall in June 2018. “It was, like, I really got to know him and then that is when it seemed [like], ‘Oh, right, this is the person.’”
Millepied, for his part, opened up to Us on Thursday about how his first experience working with his wife helped him prepare for Carmen, which marks his directorial debut of a full-length film.
“Just being on set and seeing directors work with [Natalie] and other actors was very helpful, for sure. Seeing just how every director has a different way to achieve interesting performances,” he explained. “I think … the toughest part of the journey was really understanding why I was so attracted to making film as an artist … then now as a director and working on the script and then working with actors.”
The L.A. Dance Project founder’s upcoming musical drama stars Barrera, 32, and Paul Mescal. The In the Heights actress told Us that she became an honorary member of Millepied and Portman’s family while filming the project in Australia.
“We got to spend a lot of time together. I felt so welcomed. … [He] and Natalie were so nice with me, and it was over the holidays, so they invited me to spend New Year’s with them and Byron Bay,” she gushed on Thursday. “Paul and I had a Christmas dinner together too, and we would hang out on the weekends. Like, it was a very [big] family experience. Ben is so welcoming and so generous, and his energy is always so loving.”
Carmen hits theaters in Los Angeles and New York Friday, April 21.
