Lady in the Lake: Is Maddie Schwartz Based on a Real Crime Reporter?

The new series from Apple TV Plus, Lady in the Lake, recently dropped, and fans are wondering if Natalie Portman’s Maddie Schwartz, one of the show’s lead characters, is based on a real crime reporter or is purely fictional. In Lady in the Lake, the lives of two women collide following the disappearance of a young girl in 1960s Baltimore. This new miniseries is based on award-winning journalist Laura Lippman’s 2019 novel of the same name.

So, is Natalie Portman’s Maddie Schwartz based on an actual crime reporter? Here is your answer.

Is Natalie Portman’s Maddie Schwartz in Lady in the Lake based on a real journalist?

No, Natalie Portman’s Maddie Schwartz in Lady in the Lake is not based on a real journalist. Schwartz is a fictional character created by author Laura Lippman.

Lippman used Maddie Schwartz in the story as a connecting thread between two real-life murders, which Lippman has dramatized. The real-life murders were 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz, a white Jewish girl, and 33 or 35-year-old Shirley Parker, a black woman who served as the basis for Cleo Sherwood’s character in both the novel and the series. Compared to Lebowitz, Parker’s death did not receive much coverage.

In the book and the series, Schwartz is depicted as a 37-year-old Jewish woman. She is frustrated with her life as a housewife. Due to this frustration, Schwartz leaves her husband and pursues a career as a journalist. After becoming a journalist, she decides to investigate two separate murders — a young Jewish girl and a black bartender.

Speaking to NPR, Laura Lippman revealed how she went about crafting Maddie Schwartz’s character and her work in the newsroom. The author revealed that she had contacted her father’s colleagues from The Sun to get an idea of how the newsroom worked. Moreover, she revealed that she wanted to write about a woman who wanted to matter in the world. Furthermore, she opined that the 1960s was filled with women who were great thinkers.

Lady in the Lake’s first two episodes are currently streaming on Apple TV Plus. Apart from Natalie Portman, the show also stars Moses Ingram, Mikey Madison, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers, and Noah Jupe, among others. Alma Har’el created the series.