Natalie Portman, 42, doesn’t think children should get into an acting career. The actress, who started out in the industry when she was a child, admitted she feels “luck” was the reason she was “unharmed” during her early days in film, in a new interview on the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast. She also said she thinks those interested in pursuing work as an actor should wait until they’re older.
“I would not encourage young people to go into this,” Portman, who shares two children — son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 6 — with husband Benjamin Millepied, told Variety, before clarifying: “I don’t mean ever; I mean as children.”
“I feel it was almost an accident of luck that I was not harmed, also combined with very overprotective, wonderful parents,” she added. She also looked back on her first big role in the 1994 film Leon: The Professional when she was just 13-years-old. “You don’t like it when you’re a kid, and you’re grateful for it when you’re an adult,” she said, about the acting experience.
“I’ve heard too many bad stories to think that any children should be part of it,” she continued, referring to kids already in the industry. “Having said that, I know all the conversations that we’ve been having these past few years. It’s made people more aware and careful. But ultimately, I don’t believe that kids should work. I think kids should play and go to school.”
Natalie’s latest comments about child acting come just a few months after she talked about her first starring role in Leon: The Professional, which was directed by Luc Besson. The talented star played Mathilda, a young girl who befriends a hitman, played by Jean Reno, after her family is murdered. The film
“It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “And it gave me my career. 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.”