United States of Kennedy

Episode Title: Film of the Month: Jackie (2016)
Date: August 18, 2025
Hosts: Lyra Smith & George Civeris
Guest: Hunter Harris (writer, podcaster)

Episode Overview

This episode of United States of Kennedy dissects Pablo Larraín’s 2016 film Jackie, which zeroes in on Jackie Kennedy (played by Natalie Portman) in the days surrounding JFK’s assassination. Hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris are joined by writer and noted Jackie fan Hunter Harris to analyze the film’s intimate portrayal of grief, its approach to myth-making and American legacy, and the craft of its performances—especially Portman’s. They discuss the deliberate stylization of Larraín’s direction, the focus on a singular moment rather than expansive biography, and the unique power dynamics at play for Jackie in post-assassination Washington.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Impact of Jackie and Natalie Portman’s Performance

• Hunter Harris’s Connection to the Film

  • Hunter recalls seeing Jackie in theaters and being “blown away,” calling it “one of the most fabulous movies I’ve seen this year” (06:00).
  • Reflects on how Portman is “always giving a really interesting out of the box performance during a year when she has no chance” (06:31).
  • Appreciates how Portman’s filmography parallels her own coming-of-age (“I can almost graft my own coming of age onto like Natalie Portman performance or movie,” 06:50).

• The “Millennial” Nature of Portman

  • The hosts reflect on Portman and Peter Sarsgaard’s dual appearances in Garden State and Jackie and how both films have shifted in impact over time (07:22).

2. How the Film Frames Jackie Kennedy and Her Grief

• Hunter’s Initial View of Jackie Kennedy

  • “I really had not thought very critically about Jackie Onassis or the Kennedy family in any really rigorous way before seeing this movie...Jackie [is] so perceptive about grief, obviously media and image making and, like, myth making.” (08:31)
  • The film captures the universality and isolation of grief—Jackie is “the center of your life and you think it should be the center of everyone else's life,” yet continually finds herself alone in her devastation (08:31).

• Swearing In Scene: Power and Alienation

  • Lyra highlights the tension in the scene of Johnson's swearing in—others moving forward while Jackie is isolated in her grief (09:28).
  • Hunter adds: “It’s like someone’s calling another man by her husband’s name… That instant loss of power is like another level of the grief and the loss that’s at play here.” (10:46, 12:36)

• Operatic Universality of Grief

  • George: “When you lose the person that is the most important to you, you might as well be the First Lady with blood on her dress on television, because it feels like everything is being destroyed around you.” (17:26)

3. Myth-Making, Historical Narrative, and Power

• Race to Cement Legacy

  • Jackie’s preparation of JFK’s funeral and focus on optics are discussed as ongoing attempts to “build the myth that shows she and her husband were important before they run out of time” (19:06).
  • The film parallels Jackie's efforts with her White House tour, building not just JFK’s legacy but her own relevance.

• Hunter on Icon vs. Human

  • “This movie was so human. She was such a human. It was like the exact opposite of the icon. It was like seeing all of the underneath background of the reality that makes an icon.” (19:42)

4. Film Structure, Production, and Artistic Choices

• Origins and Focus

  • The film was originally conceived as an expansive HBO miniseries, but was cut down to focus solely on Jackie’s POV (04:02, 23:45).
  • Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim cut 20 pages from the script so every scene was from Jackie’s perspective (23:45).

• Hunter’s Take on the All-Jackie Perspective

  • “I think focusing in on these three specific moments...feels very like...a uniquely charged moment in which it’s very revealing about her, about the way power works in D.C. and also about the family at large in an interesting way.” (20:40)

• Symbolism vs. History

  • The movie deliberately leaves out major figures (Jackie’s sister Lee, Onassis) and cares little for strict historical accuracy, instead heightening the sense of isolation (33:04).
  • “There really is very little interest in historical accuracy and everything…I’ve always been interested in [Larraín] as a non-American, making a movie about such an iconic American moment in history.” (33:25)

5. Performances: Natalie Portman’s Brilliance and Peter Sarsgaard’s Weak Link

• Natalie Portman

  • Praised for immersing herself in the role: "Before every take, [Portman] would just whisper to herself, ‘I love beauty,’ like, in her soft voice because Jackie was such an aesthete." (39:53)

• Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy

  • Universally panned: “If he were not in the movie so much, his complete failure would not bother me so much. But because he is, I just, like. I see it, notice it all the time.” (35:18)
  • “It’s such weird casting. Physically, he looks nothing like Bobby. Bobby does have, like, a particular, you know, face shape and vibe…” (35:18)
  • Sarsgaard’s accent is noted for “coming and going” and his “lurking” in scenes rather than performing (36:19).

• Contrast in Grief

  • George: “She symbolizes...a female gendered kind of grief...and then he [Bobby] symbolizes a male gendered kind of grief...she’s emoting and she’s acting...and then he comes and is just, like, either completely emotionless or, like, throwing things around and being rageful.” (36:50)

6. Cinematic Choices & Artistic Influences

• Dreamlike, Non-linear Narrative

  • The film’s flashbacks, tight and static camerawork, and the lack of clear intros for side characters create a “hazy,” memory-like feeling that the hosts appreciate (28:25, 34:01).
  • George: “You basically can project anything onto it. It’s kind of beside the point that she even is playing Jackie Kennedy.” (22:08)

• The Interview Framing Device

  • Hunter finds the Billy Crudup “journalist” interview framing a little conventional but effective for signifying the fuzziness between memory, myth, and fact (27:18, 29:31).
  • “Her smoking, and then saying, by the way, I don’t smoke, is like...emblematic of her relationship to the truth and to her own image making.” (29:31)

7. Comparisons and Broader Impacts

• Larraín’s “Trilogy” on Iconic Women

  • Discussion of Jackie, Spencer, and Maria: Hunter didn’t connect with Spencer (“It almost felt like the exact same movie, but just in a less intense, like a watered down version of the same movie, basically.” 25:12).
  • Noting the irony of Larraín originally doubting his ability to direct a female protagonist in Jackie, then moving to do two more films centered on women (26:05).

• Cultural Parallels: Kris Jenner, Lady Gaga, and More

  • The hosts muse playfully on a Pablo Larraín Kris Jenner movie starring Lady Gaga—a running joke about the myth-making power of women in American pop culture (39:19, 44:55).
  • Lyra notes similarities between Jackie’s sense of exploitation/abandonment and narratives about figures like Kris Jenner in O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (45:04).

8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Grief and Attention

  • Hunter: "In every frame of this movie, Natalie Portman is, like, screaming, crying as, like, blood on her body, and is like, wait, can you guys, like, give me a little bit of attention, please? Sorry, my husband just died." (08:31)

• On Power

  • Hunter: "That instant loss of power is like another level of the grief and the loss that's at play here." (12:36)

• On Myth-Making

  • George: “You see her after the assassination, almost doing that in real time with her own husband. She's trying to build the myth and build the narrative.” (19:06)

• On Natalie Portman’s Preparation

  • Hunter: "Before every take, [Portman] would just whisper to herself, 'I love beauty,' like, in her soft voice because Jackie was such an aesthete." (39:53)

• On Film’s Feel and Perspective

  • George: “It’s almost like someone’s imagination of what could have happened at that time.” (53:15)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:02] Introduction to Jackie as a film, miniseries origins
• [06:00] Hunter Harris describes her connection to the film
• [08:31] Jackie as a lens for grief and myth-making
• [12:36] Discussion of power, loss, and Jackie's exclusion in political machinations
• [19:06] Jackie’s construction of JFK’s narrative and American myth
• [23:45] The film’s script evolution and Larraín’s focus
• [28:25] Framing device and the journalist interview
• [33:04] Left-out historical figures & the focus on Jackie's POV
• [35:18] Critique of Peter Sarsgaard’s performance as Bobby Kennedy
• [39:53] Natalie Portman’s method and on-set anecdotes
• [45:04] Parallels to Kris Jenner and pop cultural myth-making
• [53:15] On the film’s hazy, dreamlike approach to history

Final Thoughts

The hosts, along with guest Hunter Harris, find Jackie to be a radical and emotionally raw portrayal—both an intimate study of personal loss and a meditation on public image. The film’s focus on a single perspective (sometimes to the exclusion of historical context) creates a unique piece that transcends standard historical biopics. Portman’s performance is universally lauded, while Sarsgaard’s is seen as a notable weak point. The conversation is also laced with humor and speculation about future biopics and casting choices, exemplifying the hosts’ blend of cultural criticism and pop culture playfulness.

Next Episode Teaser:
Next week, the show examines Taylor Swift’s brief relationship with RFK Jr’s son, Connor Kennedy, drawing more pop-cultural parallels to the Camelot myth.