Latest news with #Léon:TheProfessional
The Independent
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Natalie Portman opens up about being ‘really sexualised' as a child
Natalie Portman has opened up about being subjected to a 'long Lolita phase' when she was 'really sexualised' as a child actor. The Oscar-winning actor made her debut performance aged 13, starring in Luc Besson 's 1994 thriller Léon: The Professional as Mathilde, a young girl taken in by a hitman after the death of her family. Speaking to Wednesday star Jenna Ortega for Interview magazine, Portman said that she was sexualised as a child, an experience she thinks is endemic for young girls on screen. 'I've talked about it a little before – about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it,' she said. She continued: 'Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me. And I felt like my way of protecting myself was to be like, 'I'm so serious. I'm so studious. I'm smart, and that's not the kind of girl you attack.' In an attempt to get people to leave her alone, she created an image of herself as overly smart as a defence mechanism. 'It shouldn't be a thing, but it worked,' she said. 'But I think that's the disconnect between me being stupid and silly in real life, and people thinking that I'm some really serious bookish person. I'm not a particularly private person in real life – I'll tell you anything – but in public, it was so clear early on that if you tell people how private you are, your privacy gets respected a lot more.' She added: 'I set up a little bit of a barrier to be like, 'I'm not going to do photo shoots with my kids.'' As a teenager, Portman starred in such films as Beautiful Girls (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000). She took a step back from acting from 1999 to 2003 to study psychology at Harvard University, but returned to stage in 2001 to appear in a Broadway production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. She won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 2010 film Black Swan, a psychological horror film about the world of professional ballet. Portman has previously spoken about her role in Leon, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that her relationship with the film was 'complicated'. 'It's a movie that's still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I've ever made, and it gave me my career,' she said, adding: 'But it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it's complicated for me.' In 2020, Portman said she built 'fortresses' to protect herself from the media after being painted as a 'Lolita figure'. 'Being sexualised as a child, I think, took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid,' she said. 'It made me feel like the way I can be safe is 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.''
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Natalie Portman Reflects On Being 'Really Sexualized' As Child Actor: 'A Long Lolita Phase'
After making her onscreen debut at 11, Natalie Portman quickly learned to separate herself from her public image. The Oscar winner recently opened up about being subjected to 'a long Lolita phase' when she was 'really sexualized' as a child actor, making her debut performance in Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional. More from Deadline Natalie Portman And Jenna Ortega Circling 'The Gallerist' For Director Cathy Yan – The Dish Netflix Wins Out In Big Auction For Natalie Portman-Lena Dunham Rom-Com 'Good Sex' Eiza González Says She Got Natalie Portman Endorsement For Evelyn Hugo Role: "It'd Be Such An Honor" 'I think there's a public understanding of me that's different from who I am,' she told Jenna Ortega for Interview. 'I've talked about it a little before—about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me. And I felt like my way of protecting myself was to be like, 'I'm so serious. I'm so studious. I'm smart, and that's not the kind of girl you attack.'' Portman continued, 'I was like, if I create this image of myself, I'll be left alone. It shouldn't be a thing, but it worked. But I think that's the disconnect between me being stupid and silly in real life, and people thinking that I'm some really serious bookish person. I'm not a particularly private person in real life—I'll tell you anything—but in public, it was so clear early on that if you tell people how private you are, your privacy gets respected a lot more. I set up a little bit of a barrier to be like, 'I'm not going to do photo shoots with my kids.'' As a teenager, Portman also starred in such films as Beautiful Girls (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999), Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000). The actress took a step back from acting from 1999 to 2003 as she attended Harvard University. Following Portman's breakout role in The Professional, she turned down the titular role in director Adrian Lyne's 1997 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, which ultimately starred Dominique Swain. 'I met with the director but I immediately told him there's no way I'm gonna do this movie,' Portman told the Los Angeles Times in 1996. 'Kubrick's film of the book is great because nothing is really shown, but this one will be explicit. He told me they'd use body doubles but I said people will still think it's me, so no thank you.' Best of Deadline Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us' Everything We Know About 'The Gilded Age' Season 3 So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Natalie Portman Says She Endured 'Long 'Lolita' Phase' While Being Sexualized as Child Star: 'I Felt Very Scared'
Natalie Portman reflected on her experience navigating child stardom in Hollywood and how she protected herself "I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen," she told Jenna Ortega during an conversation Portman, now 43, was 12 years old when she began filming the R-rated 1994 film her movie debut Natalie Portman is getting candid on how she took measures to guard herself while feeling sexualized as a young star in Hollywood. The Oscar winner, now 43, made her big screen debut in the R-rated 1994 film Léon: The Professional, which she began filming when she was 12 years old. Portman, who has previously been open about navigating her teen years in the industry, spoke to Jenna Ortega about it in a new Interview magazine conversation. "I think there's a public understanding of me that's different from who I am. I've talked about it a little before — about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen," said Portman. "I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me." Fountain of Youth actress Portman, who stars opposite Ortega, 22, in the upcoming movie The Gallerist, said her "way of protecting myself" at the time was to portray herself as "so serious. I'm so studious. I'm smart, and that's not the kind of girl you attack." "I was like, if I create this image of myself, I'll be left alone," she said. "It shouldn't be a thing, but it worked." Related: Natalie Portman Says She and Jodie Foster Had 'Amazing' Talk About 'Being Sexualized' as Child Stars Ortega, who's also been acting from a young age, told Portman she feels a "kinship" with other former child actors: "As soon as someone mentions that they were a young actor, you start to look at them differently." The Wednesday star also said during the Interview discussion that "there's something really, really heartwarming but also simultaneously devastating anytime I speak to actresses from previous generations, just because their experience is so jarringly different." She added, "It's nice to see how much it's changed because I've been very fortunate in my upbringing, in our line of work." The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! Portman also explained how her career has gone through stages, in terms of the types of roles she was approached for. "There are definitely tropes, and I think at each phase in my career, there was a different one that I was like, 'Oh, I've got to avoid this.' Obviously there was a long Lolita phase," she said, referencing the controversial 1955 novel about a man's obsession with a young girl. "Then there was the long 'chick who helps the guy realize his emotional thing' phase for about a decade," the May December actress added. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! Back in 2018, the Star Wars alum told PEOPLE, "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." "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 said at the time. Portman, who has two young kids with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied, said on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast in November 2023 that she "would not encourage young people to go into" acting. She added, "I feel it was almost an accident of luck that I was not harmed, also combined with very overprotective, wonderful parents." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gary Oldman Reveals His Iconic ‘Everyone' Scene From ‘Léon' Was Meant as a Joke
Gary Oldman's iconic 'Bring Me Everyone' scene from 'Léon: The Professional' was originally just an outtake the actor filmed to get a laugh out of director Luc Besson, but the filmmaker ended up keeping it. 'I did a couple of takes, 'Bring me everyone, everyone.' And to make Luc Besson laugh as a joke, I went to the sound guys and I said, 'I'm going to be really, really loud,'' Oldman explained during a sit-down with 'The Late Show's' Stephen Colbert. 'And I did that, and he kept it and put it in the film — that was just an outtake. It was just me having fun.' The 'Slow Horses' actor went on to give more details about his time shooting the movie in New York, mentioning that during a building explosion scene and while a huge crowd was watching the crew work, a real-life bank robbery took place across the street. 'The whole crowd turned and they watched the bank robbery and the police, and then they turned back and kept watching us filming,' Oldman described in a fit laughter. 'I was not actually in the building. I was back on the corner to watch this explosion because Luc said it's going to be fantastic … You are like, what the hell, there is a bank robbery? And I just thought, 'Oh my God, New Yorkers are fantastic.' They did not even blink.' Moving on, Colbert pointed out that Oldman had a successful run as a villain in both film and television during the '90s, a task the star said he now charges more for. 'I mean, look at me, honestly. I do not know how it happened. I was sort of the poster boy for villains, and I put a stop to it. I just said … well, they are more expensive, villains. I charge more for a villain,' Oldman said. When Colbert asked if he would charge less to be a hero, he said, 'At a discount, I'll gladly be the hero.' Colbert then complimented Oldman by saying he plays 'evil well,' and asked him to break into a villainous form. However, after what appeared to be a brief attempt, Oldman instead broke out in laughter. He did not leave Colbert hanging on his request though, he gave Colbert a little tidbit on how to look intimidating. 'There is a little trick, which is from James Cagney — not necessarily evil but if you want to look more tough, you bring the head up first and then the eyes. You like that?' Oldman said before chuckling again. 'Léon: The Professional' premiered in 1994 and starred Oldman, Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, Danny Aiello and more. You can watch the full interview in the clip above. The post Gary Oldman Reveals His Iconic 'Everyone' Scene From 'Léon' Was Meant as a Joke | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
