In a candid conversation with fellow actor Jenna Ortega for Interview magazine, Natalie Portman opened up about the troubling realities she faced as a child star in Hollywood, revealing how she was sexualized at an early age and how it shaped both her personal life and career choices.
Portman, who made her acting debut at just 12 years old in the film Léon: The Professional, described feeling overwhelmed by the way the industry viewed her. “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,” she said. “I felt very scared by it.”
While growing up naturally involves discovering one’s own sexuality, Portman emphasized that she wanted to keep that journey personal and not something dictated by film roles or public expectations. Instead, she found herself navigating a series of imposed identities that she had to actively resist.
Throughout her career, Portman noticed recurring patterns of typecasting. “At each phase in my career, there was a different [stereotype] that I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to avoid this,’” she told Ortega. “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.”
Determined to avoid being boxed into these roles, Portman worked hard to shape her own path, often going against the grain of how she was perceived publicly. She said the persona people saw didn’t always reflect who she truly was and that much of her professional life has involved rejecting roles that confined her to narrow, often reductive, tropes.
Speaking on the Smartless podcast in a previous interview, Portman also shared how she developed strategies to protect herself early on. One of those was projecting a serious and intellectual image—an armor she felt discouraged inappropriate attention. “I portrayed myself as studious and smart, and I felt like that wasn’t the kind of girl people would mess with,” she said.
While acknowledging that she shouldn’t have had to take such measures to feel safe, she credits the approach with helping her navigate the industry. Portman also expressed deep gratitude for her mother, who was constantly by her side on set, acting as a safeguard during those early, vulnerable years in show business.
Portman’s reflections are part of a broader conversation about how young actors—especially girls—are often objectified in the entertainment industry, and how those early experiences can have lasting impacts on their lives and careers.
