'Cringey': Natalie Portman Finally Reveals What She Thinks About Her Most Controversial Movie
The iconic role has become a curse for the actress.
Many people know Natalie Portman since childhood thanks to the role of Mathilda in the movie Leon: The Professional, but the fame that came to the actress after this movie turned out to be painful.
Natalie Portman's first feature film role remains one of the most memorable of her career. While still a child, the actress began working with the renowned French cinematographer Luc Besson.
Along with a silent Jean Reno as an authoritative killer and the intimidating performance of Gary Oldman as the villain, Portman's more mature Matilda became the emotional center of this legendary trio and the entire movie.
However, the iconic role brought not only big fame, but also big problems. The actress spoke about how sexual objectification at a young age affected her perception of herself.
Natalie noted that the role in Leon made her vulnerable. According to Portman, because of the similarity between the image of her screen character and Nabokov's Lolita, she had to consciously cultivate restraint in real life:
"Being sexualized as a child […] took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid. It made me feel […] 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.'"
Portman added that at this age, a person begins to become aware of their own sexuality and the desire to explore it.
However, it was difficult for her to remain open to the world because she did not feel safe and tried to protect herself from unhealthy interest from adult men.
She also admitted that although the role of Matilda has become iconic and the movie itself has been critically and commercially acclaimed, it is still a difficult and uncomfortable subject for her:
"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."
Leon: The Professional was released in 1994. The plot tells about the friendship of a hitman and a teenage girl named Mathilda, whose big family was killed by the New York Police Department's drug squad.
Source: Armchair Expert, The Hollywood Reporter