The Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex has been in development for a few years, and it just got a new star. The role of RBG was previously attached to Natalie Portman, but it was confirmed today that Felicity Jones will now be wearing the statement collar of the second female Supreme Court Justice. The Daniel Stiepleman screenplay made a big enough impression when it dropped in 2014 to land on the Black List, and this is Jones’s second high-profile bit of recent casting news, having signed on to play the lead role in Luca Guadagnino’s “tentople film†version of Swan Lake. It is not yet known why Portman exited the project. Perhaps she grew weary thinking about a second consecutive Oscar nomination for playing a vaunted American political figure? In any case, Jones — an Academy Award nominee herself — seems to have spotted a winning formula for future career success, which can be summarized as: Be Natalie Portman. The former Basis of Sex star won her Oscar for Black Swan, a meta thriller version of Swan Lake, and Jones now has that box checked. So after Portman nabbed her third Academy Award nomination playing Jackie Kennedy, why not just slip into the empty robe of Ginsburg she left behind? Savvy move, Jones. We see you.
