Having *existed* in the movie the industry for some time, Natalie Portman has been relatively open to the raw, inappropriate sexualization she is confronted Since his breakout role at age 13 in Leon: the professional in 1993. And Inot new interview with The Hollywood Reporter released on Wednesday, Portman opened again on his memories of working on the film, including rape allegations that have since been leveled against its then-manager Luc Besson in 2018.

“It’s devastating,” Portman said upon learning of the allegations.. She said she had no knowledge of Besson’s predatory behavior when they worked together in the 1990s: “I really didn’t know. I was a working child. I was a child. But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate anyone’s experience.

During 2018, six different women accused Besson of assault and harassment, including a former assistant who said she was “blackmailed” into having sex with Besson. THE Hollywood journalist writing back when Besson usually requested meetings with potential actresses in hotel rooms, and the exit Also claimed to have a video of Besson facilitating a hotel room casting for a 16-year-old girl in 2003.

Looking back Leon: the professionalwhich follows a young Portman as she is framed by a hitman in her apartment building, Portman says, is “complicated for me.”

“It’s a movie that’s still loved, and people talk to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever done, and it gave me my career, but it’s definitely, when you watch it now , he definitely has a bit of a grumpy, to say the least, aspects to it,” she said.

Portman previously said he was sexually harassed by the public and adult fans when he was 13, just after the film’s release. More specifically, she recount in 2018 that shortly after starring in the film, his local radio station launched a countdown to his 18th birthday. “I understood very quickly, even at 13, that if I expressed myself sexually, I would not feel safe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body much to my discomfort”, she said. said at the 2018 Women’s March in Los Angeles.

In the same Tuesday interview with the Hollywood journalistPortman also addressed the 2021 downfall of Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, an initiative she helped launch in 2018. The organization disbanded in the summer of 2021 after members of its leadership backed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo amid sexual harassment allegations he faced. “It was really, really heartbreaking that Time’s Up dissipated the way it did. I think a lot of people made mistakes, but mistakes are deadly for activism,” Portmant said. THR. “You have to be so perfect to demand the change you want to see, and I don’t know, maybe recognize all of our imperfections as humans and say that people can do something wrong and also be good at something else. thing.”

About five years ago #The entrance to MeToo In the general public, Portman certainly has a lot to offer in terms of experiences with sexual harassment, her previous work with a man who was ultimately accused of abuseand the mess that surrounds its aspects #MeToo activism in recent years.

“HHaving a few more shades of gray might actually allow us to progress further,” she said.