Oscar-winner Natalie Portman takes on her first major TV series lead role with Lady in the Lake. The Baltimore-set crime series explores the lives of two women, an investigative journalist with a secret past, and a politically active mother, whose lives are impacted by a young girl’s disappearance. Alma Har’el, known for directing 2019’s Honey Boy, created the series and will direct.
Joining Portman in the cast is Emmy nominee Moses Ingram, known for The Queen’s Gambit and Obi-Wan Kenobi.Y’lan Noel, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers, Noah Jupe, Josiah Cross, Mikey Madison, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Dylan Arnold co-star. Lupita Nyong’o was originally cast in Ingram’s role, but dropped out.
Here’s the synopsis: When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz (Portman), a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and Cleo Johnson (Ingram), a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger.
Lady in the Lake premieres with two episodes on July 19th on Apple TV+, with new episodes each week.
