{"id":30401,"date":"2023-12-05T09:40:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=30401"},"modified":"2023-12-05T09:40:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:40:24","slug":"natalie-portman-says-children-shouldnt-be-celebrities-kids-should-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/12\/natalie-portman-says-children-shouldnt-be-celebrities-kids-should-play.html","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Portman Says Children Shouldn&#8217;t Be Celebrities: &#8216;Kids Should Play&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30416\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30416\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/12\/natalie-portman-credit-tinseltown-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30416\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/12\/natalie-portman-credit-tinseltown-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"natalie portman\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30416\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tinseltown\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hollywood actress Natalie Portman, who rose to fame as a child actor, recently said she doesn\u2019t believe kids should be exposed to the world of fame. The \u201cMay December\u201d actress <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2023\/film\/awards\/natalie-portman-may-december-todd-haynes-1235806035\/\">told <\/a><em>Variety <\/em>she \u201cwould not encourage young people\u201d to try to make it in Hollywood as children because of the myriad dangers that surround the industry.<\/p>\n<p>The Oscar winner said, \u201cI feel it was almost an accident of luck that I was not harmed, also combined with very overprotective, wonderful parents. You don\u2019t like it when you\u2019re a kid, and you\u2019re grateful for it when you\u2019re an adult. I\u2019ve heard too many bad stories to think that any children should be part of it.\u201d A great deal of her concerns about childhood stardom centers on her experience of being sexualized as a child star.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j8rdPYrwtI0?si=n1d_M5-Vxpyl5FCO\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The ways she was, she said, \u201ctook away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid.\u201d In response to being sexualized, Portman changed her behavior as she aged. She previously said some people \u201chad this impression of me that I was super-serious and prude and conservative as I got older.\u201d She said, \u201cI consciously cultivated that because it was a way to make me feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Portman continued, \u201cIf someone respects you, they\u2019re not going to objectify you. At that age, you do have your own sexuality, and you do have your own desire, and you do want to explore things, but you don\u2019t feel safe necessarily. You build these fortresses.\u201d Fundamentally, Portman simply believes kids should spend their childhood being kids. \u201cUltimately, I don\u2019t believe that kids should work,\u201d she said. \u201cI think kids should play and go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Portman, 42, began her acting career in 1994 when she starred in \u201cL\u00e9on: The Professional.\u201d She became a household name, though, when she portrayed Padm\u00e9 Amidala in \u201cStar Wars: Episode I \u2013 The Phantom Menace\u201d in 1994. \u201cMay December\u201d stars Portman as actress Elizabeth Berry (Portman), who is set to portray Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) in a movie. Gracie is a Georgia woman who became a notorious tabloid figure when she engaged in a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy, Joe. This is loosely based on the story of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who had an affair with and married her teenage student, Vili Fualaau.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty years have passed, and Gracie is trying to move on from the scandal. But to prepare for her upcoming role, Elizabeth visits Gracie and Joe (Charles Melton), who is now 36. The couple is still together, married with children, but Elizabeth\u2019s arrival exposes the fractures beneath their carefully constructed surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hollywood actress Natalie Portman, who rose to fame as a child actor, recently said she doesn\u2019t believe kids should be exposed to the world of fame. The \u201cMay December\u201d actress told Variety she \u201cwould not encourage young people\u201d to try to make it in Hollywood as children because of the myriad dangers that surround the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":30416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,3],"tags":[6017,408],"class_list":["post-30401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-movies","tag-may-december","tag-natalie-portman"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Natalie Portman Says Children Shouldn&#039;t Be Celebrities: &#039;Kids Should Play&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent interview with &quot;Variety,&quot; actress Natalie 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