Natalie Portman said it was “an accident of luck” she was not harmed as a young actress.Photo:Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Natalie Portmanis reflecting on her time as a child actor.
During an episode ofVariety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, the Oscar winner, 42, told the outlet that it was “an accident of luck” she was not harmed as a young actress, adding that she would not advise kids to enter the industry.
“I would not encourage young people to go into this,” Portman, who sharestwo children— son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 6 — with husbandBenjamin Millepied, toldVariety, before clarifying: “I don’t mean ever; I mean as children.”
“I feel it was almost an accident of luck that I was not harmed, also combined with very overprotective, wonderful parents,” she added.
Portman, who made her big screen debut inLéon: The Professionalat age 13, toldVarietythat “you don’t like it when you’re a kid, and you’re grateful for it when you’re an adult.”
Jean Reno and Natalie Portman starred in 1994’s ‘Léon: The Professional’ together.Patrick CAMBOULIVE/Sygma via Getty Images
“I’ve heard too many bad stories to think that any children should be part of it,” she said of kids in the entertainment industry. “Having said that, I know all the conversations that we’ve been having these past few years. It’s made people more aware and careful.”
“But ultimately, I don’t believe that kids should work,” she said. “I think kids should play and go to school.”
In the thrillerLéon, Oscar-winner starred as Mathilda, a young girl who strikes up a mentor-mentee relationship with a hitman (Jean Reno) after her family is murdered.
When asked about her feelings toward the film, Portman toldTHR, “It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made.”
Natalie Portman in 1999’s ‘Anywhere But Here.'.Everett Collection
Everett Collection
“And it gave me my career,” she continued. “But it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it.”
“So, yes, it’s complicated for me,” she added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Portman told the outlet that the allegations against Besson, 64, were “devastating.”
When the director was first accused of rape in 2018, his lawyer toldTHR, “Mr. Besson fell off his chair when he learned of these accusations, which he flatly denies.”
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On her own experience working with Besson, she toldTHR, “I really didn’t know. I was a kid working. I was a kid.”
“But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate anyone’s experience,” she added.
When asked what advice she would offer kids who begin acting around the same age that she did, Portman toldTHRthat she “always want[s] to tell [child actors] to treat it as a game more than a job because I don’t think kids should really have jobs.”
In the same interview, she described her own early acting roles as “fun.”
“I definitely knew how to take things seriously as a kid, but I loved it,” she said. “I really, really loved it.”
source: people.com
