Thor: Love and Thunder star Natalie Portman has spoken out about being sexualised by the media after making her on-screen debut when she was still a child.
Portman got into acting in the early '90s when she was cast in the role of Mathilda in Luc Besson’s 1994 film Léon when she was 13 years old, just a couple of years after being approached by a Revlon scout in a pizza restaurant and asked if she wanted to model.
She has since gone on to appear in hit movies such as Zoolander, V for Vendetta and The Other Boleyn Girl, and most recently she blew fans away with her appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder; a film for which she became the 'fittest, strongest' version of herself.
Though her appearance in the Marvel film has been a popular talking point, Portman revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times Style that judgements about the way she looks have been ongoing since she first began her career.
Looking back, Portman noted that 'in that time, it was very normal', but admitted she now feels uneasy about the ways in which she was sexualised when she was so young.
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She explained: “Some of it was the types of roles that were being written and some of it was the way journalists felt entitled to write about it.
"I remember reading a review of myself when I was about 13 that mentioned my breast buds.”
As a result of the attention she was getting, Portman decided to put up 'defences' such as turning down scripts which involved sex or love scenes.
"It was like, I’m not going to be seen that way, because it felt like a vulnerable position and also a less respectable position, in some way, to be characterised like that," Portman said.
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As she grew older, Portman began to look for parts which showcased the various shades 'that can be encapsulated in one person'.
She added: "I don’t know any people who are always strong. My experience of life is that people are much more variable. ”
When it came time for her to take on her role in Thor: Love and Thunder, Portman said she was asked to bulk up for the film and noted it's 'pretty unusual and wonderful to be tasked with getting bigger as a woman,' with transformations more commonly involving being 'as small as possible'.
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Portman stars in the film as Jane Foster, who transforms into the Mighty Thor.
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Topics: Marvel, Celebrity, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Film and TV
Emily Brown