Natalie Portman explains how she speaks to her children about social justice
Natalie Portman has spoken about her passion for activism and revealed how she has nagivates the topic of social injustice with her children.
The 41-year-old opened up about her family, as she shares six-year-old daughter Amalia and 11-year-old son Aleph with husband Benjamin Millepied, during a recent interview with E! News. She went on to highlight some of the important conversations she’s had with her children, specifically the ones about gender equality in the workplace.
“I think it’s equally important to have this approach towards people as equals - that men and women shouldn’t be treated differently and certainly not in the workplace,” the Black Swan star explained. “Women deserved to be valued for their work and compensated for their work in the same way that men do and invested in, as well.”
She explained how she’s maintained this perspective about equality throughout her own work life, as she’s the co-founder of women’s soccer team Angel City FC, which is based in Los Angeles, California.
“We put so much heart and soul into building Angel City and really trying to value these players as they deserve,” she said. “They’re huge stars already and we’re trying to create more access investment, so that they can be valued more from equal pay to marketing.”
The actor also acknowledged how important it is for her to prioritise her family while juggling her career in the entertainment and sports industry, explaining: “I mean really just trying to be around my kids and my friends a lot. I feel like that’s my passion the most.”
Over the years, Portman has opted to keep her children out of the spotlight, as she doesn’t usually post about them on social media. However, she has previously opened up about how they’ve shaped her career.
During an interview with Variety in June 2022, she discussed how her children felt about her working for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, as she played Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. According to Portman, her children encouraged her to do the film.
“I feel like it’s the phase of my career where I’m really trying to just impress my kids,” the Léon star explained at the time. “My five-year-old and my 10-year-old were so enthralled by this process, getting to visit the set and see me dressed up in a cape. It made it really cool. You know, it’s very rare that my kids are like: ‘Please go to work!’ Usually, it’s quite the opposite.”
Portman also wrote a children’s book, Natalie Portman’s Fables, based on her own experience with motherood, after recognising the need for modern versions of classic children’s tales. In a letter shared on her book’s website, Portman noted that she was introduced to a “whole new genre of literature, the feminist baby book,” after she gave birth to her daughter, and that she decided to write her book because it “felt sad to explain to a small child that girls and women have so many obstacles or why they are treated differently, before they’ve even started experiencing the world”.
