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Natalie Portman: I Gained 20 Lbs at Harvard

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Natalie Portman loves bucking her goody-goody persona — not just in her dark-as-midnight role in Black Swan, but in her new production company, Handsomecharlie films.

She tells the January issue of Vogue that she and business partner Annette Savitch want to make raunchy "female comedies" in the vein of Knocked Up director Judd Apatow.

"Women…are generally not allowed to beautiful and funny, and certainly not vulgar," Portman, 29, says.

Related: PHOTOS: Natalie's startling make-under

The star (who was just nominated for a Golden Globe for Black Swan) explains: "There's a difference between being in a bra and underpants as an object on a men's-magazine cover and playing yourself–a woman with desires and needs who loves and laughs with her friends–in a bra and underpants."

Portman also draws a strict line between herself and her Black Swan character, Nina — who is anorexic and generally self-destructive.

Related: PHOTOS: The year's most talked-about bodies

"I swear, I eat. I ate a bagel an hour ago," she tells Vogue. "I consume my own weight in hummus every day. I cook a lot, and I even do vegan baking."

"I like pleasure, I like joy. I'd never get to the point where I would starve or injure myself like [my character] Nina does. I'm the opposite—when I'm hungry, I eat, and I always make sure I'm eating something delicious."

Related: PHOTOS: Scary skinny bikini bodies

Portman says she did struggle with her weight and mental health while attending Harvard University. "I gained my freshman fifteen or 20 and had superdepressed moments," she says. "That Cambridge winter is tough. It was important to know how to go through that and how to get myself out of it. You start learning how to ask your friends or professionals for help, or go to mentors."

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