Natalie Portman found Lupita Nyong'o's departure from the TV miniseries Lady in the Lake "super devastating".
In March 2021, it was announced that the Oscar-winning actresses would lead the Apple TV+ adaptation of Laura Lippman's 2019 novel. However, in May this year, reports emerged that Nyong'o had dropped out of the project weeks into production, forcing the team to reshuffle the shooting schedule while they found a replacement.
Addressing her co-star's exit, Portman told Variety, "It's obviously super devastating. I'm a huge fan of hers and was really looking forward to working with her. But these things happen."
Nyong'o, who has yet to publicly comment on her exit, has been replaced by Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram.
The show, which Portman is executive producing, takes place in '60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes Portman's Maddie to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Ingram's activist Cleo Sherwood.
Lady in the Lake marks the Black Swan star's first-ever TV project and she admitted juggling producing and acting has been full-on.
"I have to be able to go from big production stuff to doing a scene five minutes later," she explained. "Which is not all that dissimilar from people who are parents and also act. You have to go from being a character to going home and doing a bunch of other stuff, or having to take a call from school in the middle of your workday. And that's why it's always very frustrating for me to hear about, like, people who are in character all the time. That sounds so nice! What a luxury!"
Portman shares two children with her husband Benjamin Millepied.