Natalie Portman opens up on how being sexualised in media took away from her own sexuality

Natalie Portman recently revealed a controversial part from her career when she was sexualised in the media and how it affected her life. She was recently a part of the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepherd. She also revealed how it affected her when she was portrayed as a ‘lolita figure’.

According to an article by Yahoo Entertainment, Oscar-winning actor Natalie Portman appeared on the popular Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepherd and opened up about how she dealt with being sexualised at a young age. Natalie Portman’s age was just 12 when she got her first role in the movie named Leon. Dax Shepherd also stated in his ArmchairExxpert podcast how he loved Natalie growing up. He also recalled the time when one of Natalie Portman’s movies, Beautiful Girls, was released. He stated that the premise of the movie was Timothy Hutton who gets infected with a cute girl who’s precocious and wiser than her years and there was something whimsical about it. The host continued how there were some pretty things and some complicated and dicey ones and how there were so many layers to it. He further said how there were times when he felt that he shouldn't be so in love with this girl but Timothy is.

Speaking about how she was being portrayed, she said that she was definitely aware of the fact that she was being portrayed in the kind of journalism around when movies come out and portrayed her as a ‘lolita figure’. She said, "I was definitely aware of the fact that I was being portrayed — mainly in kind of journalism around when the movies would come out — as this Lolita figure and stuff". In one of her speeches, she had also revealed that her first fan mail received right after The Professional was released was actually a rape fantasy that a man wrote to her. 

Adding to it, she stated how being sexualised as a child took away from her own sexuality because it made her afraid. She added how it made her feel like the way she could be safe was to be conservative, serious and should respect others, etc. She also said that at a young age, one has their own sexuality, desires and wanting to explore things and be open but one doesn’t feel safe when the older men around are interested in them.

The actor added how she built a fortress around her to feel safe. Natalie Portman also said how many people have an impression of her being serious, prude and conservative but then she realised that she consciously cultivated this in her in order to make her feel safe. Adding to it, she also said that if someone respects a person, they will not objectify them and stated how this luckily worked out. 

Talking about her career graph on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepherd, she stated that it was weird to her as compared to other Disney stars as she was auditioning for other things but got it as a kid. On the contrary, she got the dark, sexy and young girl roles and got negative results when auditioned for a cereal commercial.

She was quoted saying, "It’s totally true and it’s so weird because it’s, like, I was auditioning for all that stuff too and I never got it as a kid. I always got the dark, kind of sexy, young girl role,” and when she tried to audition for a cereal commercial “and they’d be like, ‘No way'."

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Natalie Portman’s movies

Some of Natalie Portman’s movies that made her an established actor include Leon: The Professional, Beautiful Girls, Mars Attacks!, V For Vendetta, Star Wars, Your Highness, No Strings Attached, and many others. 

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