The conversation about minors being sexualized on TV and in movies is really just getting started. As a society we’re looking back on Nickelodeon shows, for instance, and seeing a lot of situations children were put in that just weren’t right.
No one was a bigger focus of that conversation in the ’90s more than Natalie Portman. Her first role was in Leon: The Professional, a movie about a love story between a hitman and a 12-year-old girl. Many saw it as a benign surrogate parent relationship at the time — especially depending on which cut they saw. A loner and an orphan making a family, no issues there.
But in retrospect many have found the film to be hugely problematic. Not just because of 12-year-old Matilda’s adolescent crush on the adult Leon but as a reflection of director Luc Besson‘s relationship with actress Maiwenn, whom he met at 12 years old and officially began dating at 15, the legal age in France at the time. He married her when she got pregnant at just 16. He was 33. Maiwenn has since said the film was “very inspired by” their real-life relationship. Yeah. Yeesh.
That was followed for Natalie by Beautiful Girls, in which another adult man, this time Timothy Hutton, has a crush on his 13-year-old neighbor. Yes, really. Again. Yeesh.
Related: Why Natalie Portman Will Never Show Her Boobs In A Movie!
Characters being depicted is one thing, but this period — Natalie’s self-described “Lolita phase” of film roles — was dangerous territory for the very real little girl behind the scenes. But she survived unscathed. That’s miraculous for any child actor, much less one playing in such dangerous waters. How did she do it?
In a thoughtful new profile in Interview magazine, she explains:
“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. 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.”
So what did she do?
“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.’ I was like, if I create this image of myself, I’ll be left alone.”
She added:
“It shouldn’t be a thing, but it worked.”
Wow. Extremely prescient of her. The side effect was mostly harmless — and kind of funny tbh. Everyone thought she was way more serious than she was! She told the mag:
“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.”
LOLz! We do think she did a good job smashing that image with an unforgettable SNL sketch that changed how people thought of her forever.
But as she said, she shouldn’t have needed to do any of it. Nor should today’s child actors.
In the long run, Natalie thinks the best thing possible for kids in the industry is gender equality:
“It’s still so largely male, but the conversation around [gender equality] has definitely helped a lot. I feel like hair and makeup was always the female space. It’s quite stereotypical, but it’s true. So there was always this pocket on set where, as a kid, I felt safe and surrounded by women, and as I’ve gotten older, it’s only become more and more important for me to work with women.”
Sounds like a good plan for everyone!
[Image via Gaumont Buena Vista International/YouTube.]
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