Natalie Portman says getting ‘Lolita’ treatment at 12 messed up her sexuality

When I was 15, my mom started working at a family-owned financial services firm, and she brought me by one day to meet her boss and show me around. The IT guy happened to be the owner's son, and as soon as I saw the background on his computer I was immediately creeped out.

It featured a collage of pictures of Natalie Portman from The Professional. She and I are the same age, so I was well aware she was only 13 in those photos...and this guy was in his late 20s!!! That moment always stands out in my mind...it was gross.

I wish straight men were not so powerless to their hebephilia. Its really is depressing.

It's always so silly when celebrities whine about this or that in their lives.

The reason she's paid millions for each movie part isn't because of her talent alone. It's because she has to endure all this crap from fans.

She's paid to go through this shit

"This shit" was paying a 14 year to be sexualized on film. But it's no surprise now that a portion of DL has no problems with this.

R2 really, you think straight men are "powerless" to sexualize barely pubescent children? Portman looked very much like a child still (there's now overweight kindergartners that have more of a figure). There's not even a biological excuse for it, because sexual interactions, especially leading to pregnancy, would be dangerous for teens and under, despite the shitastic straight guy myth of *evolution* being why.

Being "powerless" is an excuse for being a scumbag.

You know who wasn't powerless? Her parents, who signed off on her taking the role.

She continued those sexual roles even after adulthood.

Agreed, R6.

Oh boo boo. I'm sick of all this bitching and criticising ipso facto. No one is forcing these dumb actors complaining about how hard they've had it.

I still cannot understand how her parents read the script for Leon and thought it was the right project for their 12 year old daughter. They have sex in the original script.

r1, tech bros seemed to love her in this role. One colleague who was in his 30s once told me how he used to jerk off to Natalie in Léon: The Professional. According to him, she was "peak hotness in the movie, it's been downhill ever since."

I see this was her first ever acting gig. Something tells me young Natalie would have slaughtered her parents in their sleep if they dated stand between her and stardom.

[quote]I wish straight men were not so powerless to their hebephilia. Its really is depressing.

I looked up pics of Natalie in this movie, and she looked 100% a child. No womanly development at all.

That's straight up pedophilia.

R2 here. See R11. I presume they are “powerless” because of how common it is among straight men, despite them knowing better. I agree they are scum. And I agree, she looked 7 years old in the film. Straight men are scum, really, no matter how you slice it. Sorry for offending. It is true, though.

[quote] "This shit" was paying a 14 year to be sexualized on film. But it's no surprise now that a portion of DL has no problems with this.

And yet she didn't say no....

The money and chance for fame ranked higher

She played Lolita. Of course she looked young because that was the point.

That makes me surprised she did Closer. Especially the legs spreading scene, which was really gross.

her parents sold her to men its so obvious

R17 what was the leg scene in Closer?

Here you go R19.

Natalie Portman still talks up creepo Luc Besson. She thanked him in her Oscar speech.

Is Closer a believable movie? Hard to believe Nat as a stripper with her A-cup tits.

r17 she was a grownass woman in Closer acting in the adaptation of an acclaimed play and directed by Mike Nichols. There's nothing wrong with a woman in her 20s playing a sexualised character. There is a problem with a child doing so.

(even though I hated Closer and found her character to be as much of a ridiculous male fantasy as that in Leon.)

She also got an Oscar nod for Closer, one which I felt was deserved. I loved her in that film.

And not all strippers have giant tits.

R11 The last tech guy where I worked got busted for child porn, so it might just be something about tech bros.

R25 no, I think it’s vice versa. Creepy child molesters like to learn all about newest technologies to help hide dirty deeds.

There are creepy pedos in every walk of life.

She was brilliant in Closer.

[quote]I still cannot understand how her parents read the script for Leon and thought it was the right project for their 12 year old daughter. [bold]They have sex in the original script.[/bold]

What???

Oh Lord. Everyone's a fucking victim. Except men. all men are bad. Especially white men. This shit is beyond tired.

The Professional is fucking gross. Portman's character in different scenes dresses up like Marilyn Monroe, dances in a bra, and tells a middle aged man she's in love with him.

I remember when Portman made a big deal out of turning down the lead in the 1990s adaption of Lolita because "there are already too many movies sexualizing young girls." I thought, "yeah, you starred in them."

I hate Portman. She is Goop-level annoying.

She should be complaining to her parents.

I heard she is really awkward in person but nice.

[quote]Natalie Portman says getting ‘Lolita’ treatment at 12 messed up her sexuality

Based on OPs before/after photo, her nose appears to have shrunken several sizes as well. No doubt from the trauma.

Natalie had a nose job very early in her career while still in her teens like Scarlett Johanssen.

She's a terrible adult actress, stiff and lifeless. When she tries hard, as in "Jackie", all you see is someone trying hard.

I will take her word on the effect being a child actress had on her personal life, and I want to add that being child actress didn't do her professional abilities either. Actors who learn from directors who tell them "Do this, do that, think of this, look at that, remember your first (whatever)" and so on don't really learn what acting is all about. A lot of actors who start out as blank-slate child/teen actors grow up to be lifeless as adults, like Portman and Johanssen, they just don't learn how to build a character from the inside.

At least she wasn't Jodi Foster in Taxi Driver

The only good performance Natalie did as an adult is her role in Garden State. Other than that, all her roles can be defined in one word: tears!

That was definitely gross, R20. So she's been pimping her self out? She can fuck off with her "boo hoo my sexuality robbed" BS.

She was BRILLIANT

I remember in the late 90s Christina Ricci was going to be in the Ice Storm (I think. Maybe Buffalo 66) Portman was starring in the Anne Frank play on Broadway. It was in Premier or Movieline- she said she was offered the same role as Ricci but her parents wouldn’t let her take it because they were so protective of her.

Lol.

[quote] "This shit" was paying a 14 year to be sexualized on film

Not really

It was actually her parents renting her 14 year old body out to be sexualized by every man and boy in the entire world

[quote]I wish straight men were not so powerless to their hebephilia.

Anti-semite.

R33 Her new nose isn't very good. Way too small, it looks like when I mutilated my sister's Barbie.

R40 It was The Ice Storm. Apparently they had an issue with the "sexual content" even though she had already been in The Professional and Beautiful Girls by then.

She's actually pretty good in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, making the most of what amounts to an adult male's fantasy of an all-knowing, wise-beyond-her-years dreamchild. (Ughh.) But at least she's not hyper-sexualized in that one.

To clarify: Portman isn't hypersexualized in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS in her appearance or her behavior. She does, however, serve as the flirty object of affection for the adult Timothy Hutton.

So, yes, we're still approaching Pedophile Island.

r28, you did not know that? That relationship was inspired by Luc Besson’s own life:

“According to The Washington Post, Besson met the child actress Maïwenn when she was 12, the same age as Mathilda in the film. He was 29. They claim to have started seeing each other romantically when she turned 15. Maïwenn gave birth to their daughter when she was 16 (and Besson was 33), and subsequently relocated to Los Angeles. She appears briefly during the opening sequences of Léonas “blonde babe”—her listed character name—lying naked in bed, her body wrapped in sheets, having just serviced a middle-age crime boss. “”When Luc Besson did Léon, the story of a 13-year-old girl in love with an older man, it was very inspired by us since it was written while our story started. But no media made the link,” Maïwenn said.”

r32 She's not nice at all. From Star Wars to Thor to Black Swan everyone knows she's a living embodiment of a CUNT.

Her husband Benjamin Millipied is just as cunty. He was engaged to and living with Isabella Boyston, a principal ballerina at ABT, when he and Natalie started fucking. Boyston apparently was blindsided about the couple. He was then coaching Natalie for Black Swan, he also lied to back up studio claims (and Natalie via her silence) that Natalie did majority of the dancing when it was Sarah Lane, another ABT ballerina.

After Millipied and Portman married, his career as a middling, modern ballet choreographer took off. He had no experience running a ballet company nor was he known for classical ballet works both as a dancer and choreographer. Yet he took the coveted position of artistic director of Paris Opera Ballet. He got the job because certain powerful, rich members on the POB board wanted a celebrity-adjacent person to give glamour to the post. Millipied lasted all but 2 years if I remember correctly and he left the company in a mess. The first thing he did as AD was castigate POB and ballet in general for being racist because it didn’t have enough black dancers. That came out of nowhere and his tenure which included making the company perform modern works instead of classical ballet, went downhill quickly. He suddenly left the AD position on bad terms when he and Natalie decamped back to LA, with Natalie saying something along the lines of it’s not safe to be Jewish in France.

What's really gross is that she stole her now husband from his longtime ballerina girlfriend.

On one hand Natalie understands how creepy her sexualized role in the movie was and how much it affected her. On the other hand, she had no problems working with Roman Polanski and signing the petition for him.

So she’s a hypocrite.

All of this just makes pathetic Moby seem even more pathetic.

Moby is just kind of... sad.

His singular moment of brilliance was over 20 years ago, with "Play."

Replies like r12 are grotesque and sadly typical of DL nowadays. Just complete fabrication: "She was a driven, ruthless professional at age 11 and would have literally murdered her parents to get this part; therefore, spending a lifetime dealing with adult men who were jerking off at her image when she was 11 and 12 in the film is exactly what she wanted."

Sorry, she was 12 during the entire filming, not 11 when it started, I was a few months off on that at R55.

The ruthless part is probably correct - you don’t make it to the top in Hollywood and stay there for two decades by being a nice person. I don’t see her showing much compassion towards Polanski’s victim, instead she seems to identify more with him (hence signing the petition).

[quote]On one hand Natalie understands how creepy her sexualized role in the movie was and how much it affected her.

Nah, not so much.

She doesn't blame Luc Besson for casting her in his pedo fantasy nor question her parents for letting her act in it. She thinks the film is utterly appropriate in spite of her portraying a coquette and a valid artistic statement from her at that age, and denounces male fans and the media for sexualising her.

[quote]"I turned 12 on the set of my first film, Léon: The Professional, in which I played a young girl who befriends a hit man and hopes to avenge the murder of her family. The character is simultaneously discovering and developing her womanhood, her voice, and her desire. At that moment in my life, I, too, was discovering my own womanhood, my own desire, and my own voice. 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."

[quote]”I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually, I would feel unsafe,” she said. “And that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort. So I quickly adjusted my behavior. I rejected any role that even had a kissing scene and talked about that choice deliberately in interviews. I emphasized how bookish I was and how serious I was. And I cultivated an elegant way of dressing. I built a reputation for basically being prudish, conservative, nerdy, serious, in an attempt to feel that my body was safe and that my voice would be listened to.”

I didn't know that piece of tidbit about Besson and I didn't know that Portman supported Polanski. If true, more reason to hate on her sanctimonious act.

Brush with greatness: about 14 years ago, at some fancy banquet honoring Julia Roberts, Natalie flirted with me BIG time.

I should have at least tried it.

The letter of support for Polanski was outrageous and wrong-minded, IMHO. Portman signed, but so did a lot of other celebs:

[quote]Woody Allen, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Martin Scorcese, David Lynch, Wong Kar Wai, Harmony Korine, Stephen Frears, Alexander Payne, Michael Mann, Wim Wenders, Tilda Swinton, Julian Schnabel, and Pedro Almodovar are among the 100 and counting film industry figures who have signed the petition, coordinated from France by the SACD, an organization which represents performance and visual artists.

A lot has changed since 2009, including the whole Me Too movement. I don't think this would fly nowadays. Certainly not in mainstream Hollywood.

Natalie was wonderful in The Diary of Anne Frank on broadway. She doesn’t always make great film choices but she’s a terrific actress.

Fuck off R55 that isn't what I said.

R53 I think Portman's a cunt, but I believe her about Moby.

[quote] What's really gross is that she stole her now husband from his longtime ballerina girlfriend.

I'm not a fan of Portman, but nobody "steals" a husband. The ex-wife sounds like she was a star, herself, in the ballet world. Portman's husband found someone more famous and latched on to her (Portman).

So is director Darren Aronofsky the father of her first child? There were certainly some rumors about them during the filming of Black Swan.

Portman sex appeal and charisma apparently peaked as a 10 year old given that blah oerformance as a stripper linked above.

She was incredible in Closer

Portman is getting close to the Rubicon for Hollywood actresses - turning 45. After that happens she’s going to need to learn how to act, not just look pretty in front of the camera.

R69 shes the new Thor. She will be fine.

[quote] I wish straight men were not so powerless to their hebephilia.

Yes I share your wish regarding this distasteful practice solely affecting straight men.

About the dancing thing - while I do think Natalie should have made sure Sarah was credited appropriately, having seen what happened to Rami Malek when he was open that it wasn't him singing in Bohemian Rhapsody and how people used that to try to undermine his entire performance (which was utterly pants-on-head stupid - Freddie Mercury has an incredibly unique voice ffs) I can see why she did.

The hype surrounding every aspect of BLACK SWAN, from Natalie's performance to the designs (the Rodartes taking credit for others' work), was unreal. What an overrated mediocrity of a movie.

I loved Natalie in Black Swan, but I'm also a massive ballet fan. It astonishes me that any viewer could be so stupid as to believe that she had done all her own dancing — that one could reach principal dancer skill level with only a few months of training.

Boohoo, R29. You are so pathetic, so yes, we'll all shift our sympathy from children who have been harmed to you, who are "just sick of it."

Part of getting over abuse is being able to talk about it. When you keep the secret, you keep the abuser's secret. The victim shouldn't have to have a secret. It's a crime committed by someone, not a character flaw of the one who endured it.

Amateur.

NP is always bitching about something. The girl has everything. NP shut up and enjoy your Oscar, sexy husband, family and everything else that you have and others don't have.

Portman is a lesbian,right? Jewish lesbian not the nicest people.

The Professional was just very French. It seemed set in some alternative universe kinda like NYC. Gary Oldman was great and it had a very heavy Lolita vibe, which is a respected literary trope. The pedo aspect in deliberately strange and difficult, Leon is a regressed man child. Neither understood their own sexuality. Not advocating or glamourizing pedophilia, it's presented as a problem, a thought crime, weakness, and an actual crime. Leon dies. Matilda will grow up.

Watch Serge Gainesbourg "Lemon Incest" exists and yes that's his daughter and she was cool with it.

[quote] Not advocating or glamourizing pedophilia

No. A pretty, "wise beyond her years" 12-going-on-13-year-old smoking, dressing as Madonna, strutting around in hot pants and telling strangers Jean Reno was her lover. Not glamourizing nymphettes at all.

Yeah the post at R80 is pretty fucking retarded, not to mention dickish for spoiling the movie.

And NP's parents must have shit instincts. Not only did they let her act in the role, but they also didn't bother checking her fanmail before she read it. Even if the role wasn't provocative, any parent understands the type of attention a pretty little girl is liable to draw from random strangers.

Messed up indeed

R78 = Humbert Humbert

OP did it affect her laugh as well?

I like her.

I don't want to like her, but then something in her performance resonates. She made me cry in Jackie when she's full out sobbing in the limo as they race to the hospital. Visceral.

She cries in every damn movie she's in. Every...single...one. That's the only thing that comes naturally to her.

" And I cultivated an elegant way of dressing. I built a reputation for basically being prudish, conservative, nerdy, serious, in an attempt to feel that my body was safe and that my voice would be listened to.”"

That is not unique to child actresses, I've seen a lot of women do the same thing in real life. Women who have brains and who want to be taken seriously learn early on that they can't be both sexy and taken seriously in most situations, a lot of the smart, nerdy girls I grew up with refused to look at all "girly" because then they might be seen as the fuckable thing and not a person. And yes, some of them WERE pretty, or would have been if they'd made any effort. So strangers weren't sending them kiddie-porn fan fiction, but well, horny straight high school boys can be very difficult for girls to deal with.

Of course today's kids seem to be trying to change that, the college girls are trying to be both sexy and taken seriously. Of course the main effect this seems to have had is that horny straight guys are now calling themselves "feminist" because they support the right of prostitutes and porn stars so express their sexuality (in ways that benefit straight guys). Gawd, heterosexuality is awful.

Good points, imo, R89. My sister was pretty and was cornered against the lockers by some jock in high school, after which she started wearing plainer clothes and sweaters/coats over everything. Then in college she was nearly raped at a "mixer" and that, I think, triggered a weight gain that seemed completely designed to keep guys at bay. Girls now seem tougher and of course they can be because the society allows them more control over their sexuality. Let's face it, we're animals with big brains. The brains don't compete well against hormones.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Judging from the photos, Portman has had her nose thinned. Personally, I think she's still messed up as are most people in Hollywood.

I bet she regrets every doing "Star Wars". Well, maybe she doesn't regret the money.

She’s always had a self-satisfied and wooden quality that’s annoying.

She used to also be very cutesy. I don’t know if she still is because I tend to avoid her.

From recent pics, it seems she’s still trying to dress like a waifish teen. There might be some arrested development. If so, I feel bad for her but it’s still irritating.

She is very beautiful. She reminds of young Liz @ OP's pic, but thinner obvs.

I have to admit feeling a touch of schadenfreude when I see recent photos of her. Portman’s aging remarkably quickly for someone with as many resources as she has.

Is her story about being discovered in some random pizza parlor true?

I remember some gossip that while she claims that she changed her name for "privacy" she actually was forced to.

R96 She looks rough.

For contrast, Rachel Bilson and Julia Stiles are women born the same year.

R98 makeup and lighting help.

bump

Did she ever come clean about Darren being her baby daddy? How sketchy.

R101 nope

Epstein buddy Alan Dershowitz, fucker of 15 year olds Luc Besson and Roman Polanski - she sure could pick ‘em.

Fuck off, OP. No one gives a fuck about your creepy Pizzagate Hollywood Pedo rings obsession. You're a fucking idiot.

CDAN is full of shit too. You ruined this board with your dumb obsessions. Kill yourself, CUNT.

I can think of about 5,024 things I care about before "Natalie Portman's sexuality."

Hm. I see it. She’s definitely a nerdy woman. So what. She can be a good actress at times.

I wonder about Portman's parents. Half the time she's complaining about how awful her childhood was, then she goes on and on about how great her parents were. She also said that they didn't want her to do Leon: The Professional because of the movie's content, but she insisted and "they couldn't stop" her. Um, they're you're parents, you were underage, they could've easily stopped you.

Is that why she married a gay man?

Luc Besson is a fucking sexual predator. His relationship history with underage girls is disturbing, to say the least. In the original script Natalie’s character has sex with Leon! Vile. I don’t understand how her parents ever let this happen. They said Natalie begged them to let her do the role, but they are the adults! They should have known better.

r82 The whole "spoliers" thing is retarded. If you haven't seen The Professional by now I highly doubt your gonna watch it now, much less understand it. Stick to Ironman Disney Marvel, more your speed. You'd be the type to put Ginsburg on trial for "Howl".

r109 The original script was changed. Maybe her age was different, maybe he wanted to provoke. I saw a Disney movie where a Lion talked, and another movie where a dude was actually FLYING. Like in the air. I saw "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and it was just too real to describe. I think these are all documentaries. I have a problem distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction, fantasy and reality. Also, LEON WAS A HITMAN. He actually murdered people, and TAUGHT a teenage how to murder in "The Professional". Murdering, pedo, hitman. Boycott "The Professional", cancel Luc Basson and all movies with criminal activity or negative behaviors.

In the original screenplay, they fucked.

[quote] cancel Luc Basson

He fucked and had a child with the young teen Mathilde was based on

[quote]He fucked and had a child with the young teen Mathilde was based on

Take it up with France where the age of consent is 15. Maïwenn says she was 15 when they began their sexual relationship. If she's was younger than that, she should say so.

[quote] Maïwenn says she was 15 when they began their sexual relationship.

Sure, Jan

Nerds love NatPo, especially Jewish guys. She was truly beautiful, but she's got the body of a young, weak man.

Luc Besson sounds like a real problem. Now, I'm not a big city lawyer, but it seems like ugly men get into movies to manipulate beautiful people into doing what they want - on and off camera.

The French are - shall we say - open minded.

Does Natalie ever talk about that the fact that "The Professional (1994)" is based on Luc Besson's creepy relationship? Or his other sexual abuse allegations?

I do agree that most male directors are egomaniacal perverts. However, most actresses seem naive about that - or maybe they're just playing coy to protect their career?

It probably did girls I’ve known who were sexualized too young are fucked up.

R5 We agree, not sure why you are yelling

[quote]To clarify: Portman isn't hypersexualized in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS in her appearance or her behavior. She does, however, serve as the flirty object of affection for the adult Timothy Hutton. So, yes, we're still approaching Pedophile Island

I thought that was a little weird, in the movie, but can anyone handle that it was more of a spiritual relationship, and they didn't do anything? Things are getting so ridiculous these days. Maybe he was a little attracted to her in some way but what can you do about that? It's a little bizarre to want people not to feel what they feel. The point is, he didn't act on it, neither did she, nothing happened. (As far as I remember. Been a long while since I saw it. Wasn't he in love with Uma Thurman?)

I hate this ugly bitch!

Her parents were obviously fine with it.

Blame your fucking parents, Natalie. Men are gross (and women do their fair share of objectifying minors too) but your parents should know that.

Jean Reno deserves an award for playing that role so deftly, because at points he seems quite disturbed at her coquettry and more protective and aware that she is a child who has gone through something quite profound and needs to grow up too quickly.

His relationship with her in the film is nothing like Carradine's was with Brooke Shields, for contrast. So even if perv director tried to highlight his sickness, Reno did not feed that at all from my viewing.

She got to fuck Hayden Christensen. I didn't.

R125 That's what I got from that movie, almost like Leon was more innocent than Matilda. I never got why she was "sexualized". For the dress up? She seemed like a little woman trying to survive, but not necessarily sexualized.

R127 she is definitely being sexualized, or her character is trying to sexualize herself and those scenes were quite disturbing, but Reno/Leon seems at first like he is just enjoying the performance and then appears to become as uncomfortable as the audience already is.

Many children ape what they see on tv, and the tv is there to sell them an idea of what they should be. After all, the endless rounds of "not legal" teen performers wearing hooker attire are there always to provide the example. So you can't blame Portman's character, although very doubtful the pervy director was angling for that insight.