Natalie Portman dishes on cultivating 'empathy' in 2026 amid Razzie nod

Natalie Portman has carried her monthly book club into 2026, with the same goal she started with - to cultivate empathy and understand different perspectives of people from different parts of the world.

The 44-year-old actress launched her book club, named Nat’s Book Club, in 2021 and readers from all walks of life, including fellow A-listers ,join her in reading literary masterpieces every month.

The Black Swan star has revealed her first book pick of 2026, which is a horror mystery called Strange Pictures by YouTuber Uketsu. The book has an experimental format with interconnected pictures which readers are free to interpret to form a story as they like.

The reading group’s past picks include memoirs like Malala Yousafzai’s Finding My Way and Amanda Nguyen’s Saving Five, as well as Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and novels like Claire Keegan’s Foster, and Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!.

Speaking about starting the initiative, Portman previously noted, “I believe that reading books is one of the first ways we start practicing empathy. We feel for characters in stories as we might for ourselves or our own friends. Whenever we imagine someone else’s life — their hopes and fears, their feelings and thoughts — we are practicing empathy.”

Besides the V for Vendetta star’s book club, this year has started with her nomination as the Worst Actress of the year, for her role in the action adventure film Fountain Of Youth, in the parodic award ceremony, Razzies or the Golden Raspberry Awards.