A lot of us tend to forget about this but Star Wars actress Natalie Portman started her Hollywood career at a young age, appearing in films like Heat, Beautiful Girls, and Everyone Says I Love You before landing the role of a lifetime in 1999's Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Just like every other celebrity who kicked off their careers as child stars, she's had her fair share of horrible experiences, one of which is being objectified and according to her "sexualized".
Opening up about her early struggles in a recent episode of Dax Shephard's Armchair Expert podcast (via People), the Padme Amidala actress recalled being aware of it and revealed just how frightened and unsafe she felt because of the industry sexualizing her at such a young age. "I was definitely aware of the fact that I was being portrayed … as this ‘Lolita' figure," she explains. "Being sexualized as a child, I think 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.'"
The Thor: Love and Thunderstar continued by saying that she had to draw the line on certain roles she would allow herself to take on. "So many people had this impression of me that I was super serious and conservative … and I realized I consciously cultivated that because it was always to make me feel safe," she said. "Like, ‘Oh, if someone respects you, they're not gonna objectify you.'"
You can't help but feel sorry for the Oscar-winning actress with everything she had to go through and put up within Hollywood but mad props to her for overcoming her personal struggles and not letting her horrifying experiences define who she is in the long run.
Meanwhile, Thor: Love and Thunder will hit cinemas in 2022.
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