‘Leon has unpleasant aspects’: Natalie Portman has always had a ‘difficult’ relationship with Luc Besson’s film.

Natalie Portman made a brief appearance on the Croisette to promote Todd Haynes’ film May December. HollywoodReporter. He had the opportunity to recall Luc Besson’s Leon, 30 years after its release.

If the actor knows what he owes to this film, which largely helped launch his career into orbit, he also shares it “Difficult Feelings” To her, besides being embarrassed by the sexualization of her character, which she portrayed in the film, when she was not yet 13 and a half years old.

“It’s a film that’s still loved to this day, and people talk about it more than almost anything else I’ve ever done, and it gave me my career; but when you look at it now, it has really uncomfortable aspects. So, yes, it is. It’s hard for me .”

If the actor finds “devastating” Regarding allegations of sexual violence, which Besson is the subject of, he specifies that he did not experience this during the filming of the film. Leonand does not want to prejudice the testimony of potential victims.

“Luck played a pivotal role in your career and the careers of other young women. Do you think there were any signs that . . .” Before the end of the question, the journalist, interrupted by the actor, asks, who answers: “I don’t really know. I was a kid. But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate someone else’s experience.”

“Sexuality from childhood separated me from my own sexuality”

In order to better understand the actor’s worries about this, we need to go back a bit to 2020. in the podcast An armchair expertDax Shepard explained how she built herself into a professional field in which gender and sexual violence is a reality.

“I was very aware that I imagined myself as this lolita. Sexuality as a child, I think, distanced me from my sexuality because it scared me and made me feel safe saying, ‘I’m ‘conservative,’ ‘I’m serious and you deserve respect,’ ‘smart I am” and “Don’t look at me like that”.

At this age you have your own sexuality and you have your own desire to explore things and be open. But you don’t feel safe when older men come in and you’re like, “No, no, no, no, no.” “.

“A lot of people felt that I was very serious and conservative… and I realized that I was developing it consciously because it was a way of being safe. When I was a teenager, I would say, ‘I don’t want to be loved or petted.'” Choosing sexual roles because I was worried about my safety and how I would be perceived.

During the Women’s March in January 2018, He narrated a chilling anecdote like this: “I was excited to open my first fan mail to read a message from a man who wrote me that his fantasy was to rape me. Very quickly, even at 13, I realized that if I talked to him sexually, I wouldn’t feel safe.”