After spending about 25 years in the show business, Hollywood actress Natalie Portman said that being sexualised as a child star made her feel unsafe.
The 37-year-old actor, who made her debut at the age of 13 in 1994’s The Professional, at the Women’s March last January, revealed that her first ever fan mail was a rape fantasy written by a man.
Reflecting on it further, Portman said, “I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually I would feel unsafe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort.”
She added that she felt like she has to cover herself up to ensure that she is respected by others, “I felt the need to cover my body and to inhibit my expression and my work in order to send my own message to the world that I’m someone worth of safety and respect,” she added.
However, this was when she was just a teenager. Today the actor says she has come to terms with the situation. “I know I was sexualized in the ways that I was photographed or portrayed, and that was not my doing. That becomes a part of your public identity,” People quotes Portman as saying.