Fans are apparently quite upset about the fact that Natalie Portman doesn’t wear a nappy in her new movie Lucy in the Sky, which is based on the true story of former astronaut Lisa Nowak.
Speaking on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Portman explained why she’s received some backlash, “The original story was that this woman drove across the country to kind of confront — or kidnap, depending on the version…her boyfriend and his new girlfriend, and she wore a diaper so that she didn’t have to stop on the way.”
“We didn’t do that in the movie, and everyone’s like, ‘Where’s the diaper?’” she said. “Everyone’s really upset to not see me in a diaper. I don’t know what’s that about.”
Yeah, weird.
So, in the movie Portman plays Lucy Cola, based on Nowak, a former robotics specialist who traveled into space in 2006. Cola starts having an affair with fellow astronaut Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm), but things get messy when he starts dating another woman. In Nowak’s story the man’s name is Wiliam Oefelein.
Now, the real-life version of the story goes like this…
When Nowak’s relationship with Oefelein broke down, she drove from Houston to Orlando to confront his new girlfriend, U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman.
The New York Times reports that Nowak had a steel mallet, a knife with a four-inch blade, a BB gun and a map to Shipman’s house. She also apparently wore a nappy (or a diaper if you’re in the US), so she didn’t have to stop for unnecessary toilet breaks.
Nowak was later arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and murder.
Portman also spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the decision not to include the nappy part of the story because it was “the most salient, tabloid-y detail” of Nowak’s story.
“Oh, the diaper sadness… It was an interesting detail, because it was something that seemed so radical to all of us listening to it,” she says.
“But actually it’s part of an astronaut’s life. They wear diapers the whole time because that’s what you do in space. It’s not like it would be an unusual choice. It seems a lot nuttier if that’s not something you do every day. But I guess I still have a diaper movie in my future to fulfill everyone’s expectations.”
Lucy in the Sky is set for release on October 4.