Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has claimed she had a lucky escape at the hands of a movie producer who tried to seduce her on a private plane, DailyMail.com can reveal.
And in a scathing attack on Hollywood, the star reveals she has faced ‘discrimination or harassment’ during every project in her glittering career.
Portman says she is fortunate to have not been one of the many star names sexually assaulted in the scandal that has ripped the lid off tinsel town’s male abusers.
But she says she has a ‘hundred stories’ about how she has been mistreated by men in the industry. She also admits that harassment in Hollywood was something that until now was taken for granted by many actresses as being ‘part of the process’.
The 36-year-old, speaking at The Vulture Festival LA at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel on Sunday night, added that women were often forced into positions where they were unable to speak up about their horrendous ordeals and she blasted Hollywood studios for failing to take female actors’ opinions seriously.
Natalie Portman has revealed while she is fortunate to have never been sexually assaulted, she admits she’s faced ‘discrimination or harassment on almost everything I’ve ever worked on in some way’
Speaking about her lucky escape she said: ‘I had a producer invite me to go on a private plane with him, with his company somewhere I was going to. And 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. Nothing happened. I was not assaulted.
‘I said: “This doesn’t make me feel comfortable” and that was respected but that was super not okay. That was really unacceptable and manipulative. I was scared. But just the fact of any women – if you are walking alone on the street at night, you feel scared.
‘And I’m not sure guys know what that is. If you’re alone on a street, you’re like worried. And guys probably have that in a different way. You think there’s a bigger guy that is going to fight you or something. I don’t know. I don’t know what it feels like to be a guy,’ she said laughingly.
‘It just feels like you have an awareness that your body is not safe.’
Portman claimed that she had to reconsider her initial thoughts in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations.
At first the star was relieved that she wasn’t among the dozens of women who have claimed they were raped or sexually assaulted by the movie mogul, but then considered how she had been an abuse victim for years.
‘I think my first reaction when I heard everybody coming out was, “Wow. I’m so lucky that I haven’t had this.”
Portman, who won a Best Actress Oscar in 2011 for her role in Black Swan (right) admitted that abuse of women was ‘taken for granted’ for decades, however that situation has changed. She also told the audience how she avoided taking roles with sex scenes as a young actress in fear of being called ‘Lolita’
Portman was only 12 years old when she made her acting debut in the French thriller Leon, in 1994 (pictured)
‘And then, on reflection, I was like; “Okay, I definitely have never been assaulted… definitely never,” but I’ve had discrimination or harassment on almost everything I’ve ever worked on in some way.
‘And the fact that it was like “oh, wait.” I went from thinking I don’t have a story to “oh wait, I have 100 stories,” and I think a lot of people are having these reckonings with ourselves of things we just took for granted as oh, this is part of the process.”’
The actress, who has starred in three Star Wars movies, continued that her career has been blighted by a focus on her body rather than talents.
‘Even the fact for me, when I promote a film, have to wear fashion on a magazine cover. And a man is in a white t-shirt and jeans on a magazine cover; even that is a form of discrimination,’ she added.
‘That’s a small thing that is not in any way comparable to the accusations of assault coming out but we all have experienced, I think every woman has experienced this kind of discrimination. People commenting on my body all the time to me, from the time I was a child.
‘Things that are not okay and not on the same level of abuse, but they were a very comfortable environment to discrimination where it’s not something I never thought was a reportable offense.’
Portman, who won a Best Actress Oscar in 2011 for her role in Black Swan, admitted that abuse of women was ‘taken for granted’ for decades, however that situation has changed.
‘There are so many things that we took for granted as part of our world until it changed a month ago. For women and men, we’re like, ‘wait’. ‘A lot of people have been aware of it for a long time too, but also a lot of things that we just kind of put up with for reasons of maybe just being numb to it from it being so pervasive, or people being so upset about it.
Headed to Hollywood: Portman laid out her scathing observations of life as an actress at The Vulture Festival LA at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel on Sunday night
Happily wed: The star is married to French ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied whom she met while making Black Swan, for which she won an Academy Award
‘But if you spent all your time reporting what was going on, that’s all you would do because it’s so pervasive. And yeah it gets so built into the power struggles in every industry.’
Portman says that in acting circles Weinstein and other abusers are ‘definitely the big topic’ and says it’s ‘great that everybody is finally talking about it.’
She added: ‘I feel like the conversation has shifted from other things like work-life balance and being a mother and working at the same time, how incompatible that was, to wait, there’s a much larger issue that is related to that whole conversation.
‘But it’s just this systemic lack of inclusion in all workplaces for women and for minorities and for LGBT and for women of disabilities.
‘And all power structures are not representative of our world and it allows for these horrific abuses, which are horrific, but they are a symptom.’
Portman insists Hollywood forced the
women, who suffered at the hands of abusers, into feeling alienated. The victims were often lone voices or women kept away from being able to discuss their treatment.
‘I think women experience this in a lot of industries. If you do get the opportunity to work, you’re often the only woman in the room. You’re surrounded by male lawyers, business people, and writers on the show.
‘It’s interesting because the surprising thing is it almost feels strategic to keep you away from other women so you don’t have an opportunity to share stories.
‘That’s like all these accusations, it’s like everyone was isolated from each other. People didn’t share. They didn’t realize there were hundreds of people with similar stories.’
She added that she turned down roles early in her career because of sex scenes through fear of being called a ‘Lolita’.
And she also said she felt that she was not considered an equal on many of the movies she has shot, often being ‘managed’ or ‘ignored.’