A prodigy since she first stepped onto the screens in Léon: The Professional, Natalie Portman faced down the male gaze and twisted horrors of human nature at the age of 13. It was no news that Hollywood would turn the little actress into a star in no time but what wasn’t mentioned on the labels was that aspects of this job would also turn a young teenager into the object of desire for men across the world. 

Natalie Portman Had a Horrific Experience After Film Debut

To be 13 and wide-eyed about the scope and opportunities of Hollywood must go hand-in-hand, especially when the industry gave the said 13-year-old her first taste of fame and success. Natalie Portman was by no means ordinary. Her first role, Mathilde, in her debut film portrayed a complex young girl with a character entirely original that a teenager should not have been able to cultivate without being immensely skilled at her art. 

Speaking at an LA Women’s March in 2018, Portman revealed the response she had expected after the premiere of Léon and what she received instead: 

I was so excited at 13 when the film was released, and my work and my art would have a human response. I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a r-pe fantasy that a man had written me […] A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday – euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with.

At 13 years old, the message from our culture was clear to me. I felt the need to cover my body and inhibit my expression and my work in order to send my own message to the world. That I’m someone worthy of safety and respect.

Natalie Portman and Jean Reno in Léon
 

The implications of such a violent and volatile nature can be devastating to a young and artistic mind – and even though Portman remains resolute in her trade and continues to deliver powerful Oscar-winning performances, the traumatic experience of having to face those threats continues to exist in the aftermath of her film career taking off. 

Natalie Portman Revealed the Aftermath of Young Fame

During an episode on Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, the actress who recently became the Marvel superhero, Lady Thor, in Thor: Love and Thunder, claimed how her perspective shifted in the aftermath of her roles as a teenager in Léon and Beautiful Girls:

It took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid, and it made me [feel] like the way I could be safe was to be like, ‘I’m conservative’ and ‘I’m serious and you should respect me’ and ‘I’m smart’ and ‘Don’t look at me that way.’

Léon: The Professional (1994)
 

She branded the experience she had as a child “sexual terrorism.” With her roles getting increasingly radical and transgressive with time, there is no doubt (in hindsight) that she was trying to steer away from her sexually charged roles to a more didactic one. Her later appearances in V for Vendetta and Black Swan stand as proof of that.

Source: Women’s March 2018