Natalie Portman Says Being Sexualised In Childhood 'Took Away' From Her Sexuality

Natalie Portman has opened up about how being sexualised as a child 'took away' from her sexuality.

The 39-year-old made her acting debut in Léon: The Professional in 1994, when she was just 12.

She previously stated that the first fan mail she received from a man off the back of the film included a 'rape fantasy', while one radio station ran a countdown to when she was of legal age.

Talking about how this impacted her on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard, the Oscar-winner said: "Being sexualized as a child took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid.

"So many people had this impression of me that I was super-serious, and a prude, and conservative as I got older.

"I consciously cultivated that because it was a way to make me feel safe. If someone respects you, they're not going to objectify you."

This fear of being objectified led Portman to turn down certain roles, such as ones which involved kissing or sex scenes.

She said: "At that age you do have your own sexuality, and you do have your own desire and you do want to explore things... but you don't feel safe necessarily.

"You build these fortresses."

PA

Portman previously discussed the impact of being sexualised from an early age during a speech at the Women's March in Los Angeles in 2018.

She said: "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 rape 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. Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews.

"At 13 years old, the message from our culture was clear to me. I felt the need to cover my body and to 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.

"The response to my expression, from small comments about my body to more threatening deliberate statements, served to control my behaviour through an environment of sexual terrorism."

Topics: Celebrity, US News

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey