“Inner strength isn’t found. You build it, piece by piece,” says Natalie Portman in her new campaign film for Tiffany & Co., which premiered during the Oscars last night and ushers in her era as an ambassador for the jewelry house. The building blocks suggested by the short? The spirit of New York, the influence of classic films (evoked as Portman gazes through a Tiffany window while “Moon River” plays), the bond between mother and daughter, and, of course, a few enduring heirloom constructions by the jeweler itself.
Directors Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet—the couple behind films including The Brutalist and The Testament of Ann Lee—deftly capture the character of a leading woman like Portman outside the silver screen—family-focused, more mellow than her outsized persona might suggest. In the film, the actor, who the pair worked with on Vox Lux, steps off set to write a letter to her daughter, traversing the city on foot and by chauffeur as she flits in and out of the spotlight.
“You don’t have to be perfect to experience perfect moments,” she writes, while donning diamond-encrusted iterations of Tiffany and Co.’s HardWear necklace, bracelet, and earrings. “This is where inner strength grows best.” Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, a frequent Christopher Nolan collaborator, steers her from one dreamy Uptown location to the next as Portman, herself a working mother, promises through the phone that she’ll “be home before you know it.” With Fastvold and Corbet, Hoytema shot the short on 70mm film, a format the pair noted “allowed [them] to reflect the brand’s craftsmanship with extraordinary fidelity.”
“Strength appears in different ways throughout our lives. It’s found in the thrill of growth and in the discovery of new dimensions within ourselves,” said Portman in a statement, of the project’s central message. “Mona and Brady have crafted a beautiful and meaningful film that reflects the experience I’ve had over the years and the journey that continues to shape who I am becoming.”
Elsewhere in the campaign imagery, Portman wears a selection of the house’s most iconic styles, each representing a fact of love—be it strength, intimacy, or joy. Overlooking the cityscape, she can be seen in pieces from the Tiffany T and Knot collections. “Natalie’s sophistication, authenticity and intelligence resonate deeply with Tiffany & Co.’s values,” said the jeweler’s president and CEO, Anthony Ledru, of his new ambassador. “Elegant and courageous, she effortlessly embodies the modern Tiffany woman.”
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