Natalie Portman Says She and Jodie Foster Had ‘Amazing’ Talk About ‘Being Sexualized’ as Child Stars

Former child actresses Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster have a lot in common.

In one episode Brainless podcast, Portman, 42, recalled her first film role in 1994 Léon: Professional, and reflected on navigating Hollywood as a young performer. Portman said that Oscar winner Foster (61) contacted her after a speech she gave in 2018 at the Women’s March in Los Angeles.

“I gave a speech at the Women’s March about being sexualized as a young actress and she reached out to me afterwards and we talked and it was amazing,” Portman said. – She is still a role model.

Portman also recalled how she was able to avoid bad interactions while working in her youth and how she now spots potential predators.

“That kind of projection of seriousness kind of protected me. ‘Cause I feel like it was almost a warning signal like, ‘Oh, don’t do the s— to her,'” Portman said. “Not that anyone ever, you know, deserves or asks for that. But I felt like that was my unconscious way of doing it.”

Natalie Portman says she was ‘scared’ by ‘sexualisation as a child’: ‘You don’t feel safe’

Jodie Foster in “The Professional” (1994).

Snap/Shutterstock

She added: “I feel like the biggest sign is when people talk to— about women. If they talk to— about anybody, even if they just say, ‘Uh, she’s really heavy,’ that’s [red] flag for me. There’s more to the story.”

Portman also explained that her mom “was by my side the whole time and made sure no one got close to me” while working as a child actor. Then, “When I went to college, my dad said, ‘Okay, that was sweet. It’s time to move on. Let’s find another job— real job.’ ” She went to Harvard University to study psychology.

Foster, meanwhile, went to Yale University to study African-American literature after years of making movies as a kid.

While on Today show last month, Nyad actress — who was 12 years old when she played a sex worker in 1976 Taxi driver — said of growing up in the spotlight: “It’s weird growing up as a public figure. I don’t recommend it to anyone. I think it’s a tough road. Especially when you start so young.”

“It’s a long journey of figuring out, like, who you are and who your job is and what part of you is your job. All those things,” Foster added.

Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver” (1976).

Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock

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In her 2018 speech at the Women’s March, Portman recounted the “environment of sexual terrorism” she experienced as a teenager after starring in professional, which she made at the age of 12.

“I realized very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that I would feel insecure when I expressed myself sexually and that men would have the right to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort,” she said at the time.

Last year, Portman said The Hollywood Reporter that her take on that breakthrough film role remains “complicated.” He said May December actress: “It’s a film that’s still loved, and people talk to me about it more than anything I’ve ever done, and it gave me a career, but it’s definitely, when you watch it now, there’s definitely some cringey, in aspects of it at least. So yeah, it’s complicated for me.”

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Source: HIS Education