Natalie Portman Talks Career, Activism and Life in Hollywood

Actress Natalie Portman has a preternatural skill for embodying her subjects on screen — an art she has mastered since she broke into the business as a child. The Oscar-winning actress has also established herself behind the camera too, writing and directing her first feature, A Tale of Love and Darkness, based on the memoir by Amos Oz, in 2016.

Vanity Fair writes that it is rare to witness an actress experience such longevity before she’s even 40. Portman matured in front of us, and has almost always appeared more mature than us. She has tackled grueling, heavyweight roles from the beginning, but she was also able to keep her private life out of the spotlight.

That is, until last year.

Now, Portman is not only figuring out where her career is headed but also actively trying to change the industry she grew up in, working tirelessly with both the Time’s Up and the #MeToo movements.

During a speech at the Women’s March rally in January, Portman said that she was exposed early to the cruel objectification and sabotaging effects inherent to working in Hollywood.

“I excitedly opened my first fan mail,” Portman said to the crowd, according to Vanity Fair, “to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me. A countdown was started on my local radio station for my 18th birthday, euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with. Movie reviewers talked about my ‘budding breasts’ in reviews.”