Natalie Portman: Being sexualized as 'Lolita figure' as a young actress 'made me afraid'

Natalie Portman: Being sexualized as 'Lolita figure' as a young actress 'made me afraid'

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Natalie Portman is opening up about how being sexualized as a child star impacted her development.

On Monday, Portman, who began acting at age 12, reflected on her Hollywood career and discussed the negative impact of unwanted attention on the "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard" podcast.

In her 1996 role as 13-year-old Marty in "Beautiful Girls," in which her character forms a relationship with an older man (played by Timothy Hutton), Portman said she "was definitely aware of the fact that I was being portrayed... as this 'Lolita' figure," referring to a 12-year-old girl from Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 book who was sexually involved with a middle-aged man.

She later went on to turn down the infamous role of Lolita in Adrian Lyne's film adaptation in 1997.

'That was not my doing': Natalie Portman says she was sexualized as a child star

"Being sexualized as a child, I think, took away from my own sexuality, because it made me afraid," she continued, adding that the only way to feel "safe" was "to be like, 'I'm conservative' and 'I'm serious.'"

Portman's first acting credit, "The Professional," released in 1994, when Portman was just 13.

The "Black Swan" actress noted that her public displays of maturity conflicted with the reality of sexual curiosity during adolescence.

“But at that age, you do have your own sexuality, and you do have your own desire, and you do want to explore things, and you do want to be open. But you don’t feel safe, necessarily, when there’s, like, older men that are interested, and you’re like, ‘No, no, no, no,’” she explained.

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In response, Portman says she built "fortresses," or defenses against unwanted attention, that ultimately "didn't allow a full expression of who I was at that time."

"I consciously cultivated that (persona), because it was ways to make me feel safe. Like 'oh, if someone respects you, they're not gonna objectify you,'" she said.

"When I was in my teens, I was like, 'I don't wanna have any love scenes or make-out scenes.' I would start choosing parts that were less sexy, because it made me worried about the way I was perceived and how safe I felt."

Ultimately, she acknowledges that she succeeded in feeling "safe," adding that "it worked out, luckily."

Portman, 39, is married to French dancer Benjamin Millepied, with whom she has two kids, Alpeh, 9, and Amalia, 3.