Brett Gelman Praises Natalie Portman for Going to a ‘Raw and Chaotic’ Place for ‘Lady in the Lake’

Brett Gelman opened up about how collaborating with Natalie Portman on Apple TV+'s Lady in the Lake helped elevate his performance as Milton.

During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly ahead of the show's premiere, Gelman, 47, had nothing but praise for Portman, 43, while discussing their approach to Milton and Maddie's tense relationship throughout the season.

"Natalie really led the charge on that very much," Gelman said of his scene partner. "She's able to go to a very raw and chaotic place in front of the camera and then let that go as soon as the cameras stopped rolling for the most part."

A similar work ethic helped Gelman and Portman collaborate, with the actor adding, "That's something that she and I both have in common in our processes. So that really matched up a lot and it made it a very holistic and enjoyable experience."

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Lady in the Lake, which is based on Laura Lippman's 2019 novel of the same name, is centered on the murder of a young Jewish girl and the disappearance of a Black woman in the 1960s. Portman's character, Maddie, is inspired to look into the potential connection between the cases. Before Maddie can follow her dreams of being an investigative reporter, she first has to end her marriage to Milton.

The first two episodes, which are currently streaming on Apple TV+, follow Maddie as she goes from a typical family life to living on her own in a run-down apartment in Baltimore. Despite Maddie's perspective being most of the driving force of the show, Gelman was able to understand where his character was coming from too.

"It was really navigating the desperation of losing my wife and the code that I know being broken and this thing that I built my success on — this reality of existence that I've built my success on — maybe being destroyed and definitely coming under threat," Gelman said about his performance. "Obviously he is — to some extent — an oppressive and patriarchal figure based on the code that he's been brought up with. By that, he believes what makes a successful Jewish American."

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Gelman said Milton's perspective on Maddie remaining a housewife is shaped by the time period.

"The answer to a lot of Jewish existence in the United States is based on assimilation, while still holding onto your culture and holding onto your traditions," Gelman explained. "[Milton is] somebody who is holding onto those traditions and keeps his culture alive in a foreign land. [His beliefs are] something that he genetically inherits."

Gelman is hopeful that viewers will be emphatic to Milton as the season goes on.

"He loves his wife — he deeply loves her — and I think he even respects her. It's in a way not his fault that the only thing he knows is that this is the role of the man and this is the role of the woman," he continued. "Until his wife leaves him, he's not really presented with anything that is a different viewpoint than that in all of his life experience."

For Gelman, Milton is simply a flawed person — just like everyone else on the show.

"I don't think that he forced his wife into anything. That's just the way in which the society that they live in is set up. So I hope that people can empathize that when people live in a code, they're not actively trying to oppress someone," Gelman told Us. "That is something that's really important right now for us in the current state of the world that we live in. To be able to have empathy and not demonize any side and really try to understand where people are coming from. before we just place a very easy judgment on them that doesn't really hold the complexities of being alive and of the true human existence."

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He continued: "It's important that we don't just put these judgements on things based on it looking like something we think we know and we actually don't. Because we haven't properly analyzed the full three dimensional aspect of those people in those situations and all people in all situations."

Gelman told Us that he took away an important lesson from filming Lady in the Lake, saying, "Every time that you really delve deep into [a project] and you let the moment become something that is not your preconceived notion of what it's going to be, that's always a big lesson. That's a lesson that you learn again and again and again as an actor that you can't learn too much of."

The limited series allowed Gelman to "have more faith" in his process. "That's the gift of jobs like this that really help you," he concluded. "They help you utilize it better and better and better. So it definitely was one of those jobs that made me a better actor."

The first two episodes of Lady in the Lake are currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes will be available on Fridays.