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Natalie Portman got an early start in the film industry after having starred in the 1994 feature The Professional. But the attention that came Portman’s way afterwards proved to be a bit overwhelming back then.
Natalie Portman’s parents weren’t sure they wanted her to be a child star
Portman already had a passion for performing at a young age. Growing up around other like-minded artists with similar interests only helped fuel her passion and creativity.
“I was just always really into performing when I was little. I loved dancing, singing, putting on shows for the family. Because I lived on Long Island, a lot of kids in Long Island would do commercials and auditions for TV shows and stuff,” she once recalled in an interview with TIFF.
After convincing her parents to get an agent for auditions, Portman would eventually find herself in the Luc Besson-directed film The Professional starring Jean Reno. But it was a film her parents were reluctant about Portman starring in. The Portman family had preconceived notions about child stars, and they weren’t sure they wanted Portman becoming one herself.
“It was definitely a big conversation in our household before they allowed me to do it,” she recalled. “My parents are not related to the film industry at all and they were very much like, ‘Child actors become drug addicts, prisoners. This is not the road we want you to take.’ And I really fought for hard for it.”
Natalie Portman once felt ‘The Professional’ response was the worst thing that ever happened to her
Portman was catapulted into the spotlight after clinching her part in the action thriller. But she remembered the sudden attention she experienced in The Professional taking a bit of a toll on her. Some in the industry criticized the relationship between Portman’s and Reno’s characters, especially because of their age difference. At the time, Portman didn’t know how to react to the response.
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“It was so extreme,” she once said in an interview with The Guardian. “The circumstances and the outrage and puritanical raging against it. As a 12-year-old [it was] just horrifying – you don’t think: ‘F*** them!’ You’re just like: ‘Oh my God, this is the worst thing that’s ever happened.’ And I think my parents felt really guilty: ‘Did we do something wrong?’”
The experience didn’t discourage Portman from acting any further. But it did temporarily influence the kinds of movies Portman did. She avoided “acting in stuff that was sexually provocative when I was young.”
Natalie Portman felt sexualized after her starring role in ‘The Professional’
Not too long ago, Portman opened up about some of the pressures and challenges that came after her stardom. Her role in The Professional had an undesirable affect on her childhood, and made her feel like it was unsafe to express herself.
“I was definitely aware of the fact that I was being portrayed … as this ‘Lolita’ figure,” she once said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert (via People). “Being sexualized as a child, I think took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid and it made me 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.’”
This influenced the types of roles she would pursue later on in her career. Portman found herself gravitating towards the characters she felt would provide a safe space.
“When I was in my teens I was like, ‘I don’t wanna have any love scenes or make-out scenes,’” she added. “I would start choosing parts that were less sexy because it made me worried about the way I was perceived and how safe I felt.”
