Returning to her roots! Natalie Portman opened up about growing up in Long Island, New York, and revealed that she typically assumes old habits while visiting home.
The 37-year-old Oscar winner, who assumes a thick New York accent in her upcoming film Vox Lux, revealed that the role came naturally for her. “Well, I grew up on Long Island … [An accent is] not that hard for me to slip into,” she revealed exclusively to Us Weekly on Thursday, November 1, at the 2018 IndieWire Honors in West Hollywood. “Every time I go home, any time I’m around my high school friends, I go into it. It’s quite fun to go back to my roots.”
While chatting with Us, Portman also reflected on her impactful year. “It’s been really, really meaningful and creatively fulfilling in many, many ways,” she noted of contributing to the Time’s Up movement as well as filming Annihilation and Vox Lux.”
In November 2017, Portman lent her voice to Time’s Up in a deeply personal way by sharing her sexual harassment story. “I had a producer invite me to go on a private plane with him, with his company somewhere I was going to. And then I was, like, ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t I accept a flight on a private plane with a big group of people?’ And I showed up and it was just the two of us and then one bed was made on the plane,” she disclosed while speaking at a Vulture Festival panel at the time. “Nothing happened. I was not assaulted. I said, ‘This doesn’t make me feel comfortable’ and that was respected but was super not OK. That was really unacceptable and manipulative. I was scared.”
The Black Swan actress also voiced her support for other women in the industry who have come forward with accusations. “It’s been great that everybody is finally talking about it,” she said. “I think my first reaction when I heard everybody coming out was, ‘Wow, I’m so lucky that I haven’t had this.’ And then, on reflection, I was like, ‘OK, I definitely have never been assaulted, definitely not. But I’ve had discrimination or harassment on almost everything I’ve ever worked on in some way … I think every woman has experienced this kind of discrimination.”
With reporting by Nicholas White
