Natalie Portman made a “conscious effort” to be seen as a “good girl” in her teens after being sexualised in her early movies.
Natalie Portman made a “conscious effort” to be seen as a “good girl” after being sexualised in her early movies.
The 46-year-old actress – whose breakthrough role came in 1994’s Léon: The Professional when she was just 12 years old – worked hard in her teens to maintain good grades and always made sure her red carpet outfits were modest and age-appropriate because of the “safety mechanism” she cultivated for herself.
She told America’s Harper’s Bazaar magazine: “I think there was a conscious effort, because I was depicted as this sexualised Lolita, that I wanted to be like, ‘No, I’m serious, I’m a good girl, I’m a prude, I’m smart, I’m a student,’ emphasising that as almost a safety mechanism.”
Natalie won an Oscar in 2010 for her role in ballet thriller Black Swan, which led to an era of critically acclaimed work, but the actress thinks it also made people believe her to be a far more “serious” person than she really is.
She said: “But then, over time, it became like everyone thinks I’m really serious.
“I’m very silly, and I love to laugh more than anything, and I love to goof off. People always think I’m a perfectionist, I think, because of Black Swan.
“I’m the opposite. I’m forgiving with myself. In college, we had a phrase: ‘Done, not good.’”
The Gallerist star – who has Aleph, 15, and Amalia, nine, with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied and gave birth to her first child with partner Tanguy Destable in August – has found it difficult to shake off her image as a child actress and be taken seriously.
She said: “I mean, I’m 45. I’m fully nowhere near being a child anymore. Just being small, I think a lot of people relate to you differently. I think that that compounds the issue too when you have been a kid actor.”
While she has enjoyed a lot of success over the years, Natalie feels “lucky” for facing a wave of fierce criticism over the Star Wars prequels, in which she played Padmé Amidala.
She said: “I had lucky early experiences of failure. I know I’ve been also very lucky to have a lot of successes that have balanced it out.
“But I mean, for example, my first film, The Professional, got horrible reviews and had no box office. And then I made Star Wars. I was 16, and that got murdered.
“It was a huge success financially, but all of it was ‘They ruined the franchise. None of them can act. They all suck.’”
Natalie found the criticism motivating.
She explained: “I think it was an amazing early lesson in how to read really bad things about yourself and then be able to be like, ‘I’m going to make another one. I’m going to show them.’
“I don’t remember talking to anyone about it. I didn’t want to show anyone that I was hurt or anything.”
Natalie Portman wanted to be seen as a ‘good girl’
