Natalie Portman felt “very scared” after being sexualised as a child star
During a new discussion with Jenna Ortega, Natalie Portman revealed that she endured a “long Lolita phase” as a child actor, reflecting on how she was sexualised by the industry from a very young age.
The actor was only 12 years old at the time of filming Leon: The Professional, her breakthrough role, which led to subsequent success in films such as Black Swan and May December.
Portman has now spoken up about the sexualisation of child actors for many years, explaining to Ortega for Interview Magazine, “There’s a public understanding of me that’s different from who I am. I’ve talked about it a little before — about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me.”
Portman expanded on this by describing the many different boxes that the film industry assigns to female actors, saying, “At each phase in my career, there was a different one that I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to avoid this.’ Obviously there was a long Lolita phase. Then there was the long ‘chick who helps the guy realize his emotional thing’ phase for about a decade.”
During a recent interview on the Smartless podcast, Portman revealed how she learnt to project a tough exterior from a young age to protect herself from potentially harmful predators and sexualisation in the film industry.
“That kind of projection of seriousness protected me in a way,” she said. “It was almost a warning signal like, ‘Oh, don’t do shit to her.’ Not that anyone ever, you know, deserves it or is asking for it. But I felt like that was my unconscious way of doing it.”
While Portman added that her mother was always with her on set as a child and “made sure that no-one got near me”, she wasn’t always sure if she would continue acting as an adult, adding, “When I went to college, my dad was like, ‘Okay, that was cute. Time to move on. Let’s find another job — a real job.’”
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