'I’m 43 now, and people kind of pat me on the head': Natalie Portman thinks people still 'treat her like a child'
Hollywood actress Natalie Portman has opened up on how finding fame as a child star and her smaller stature impacts how people perceive her.
Natalie Portman thinks people still "treat her like a child".
The 43-year-old actress - who rose to fame as a child in 1999's 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' - insisted that despite growing up in the spotlight and developing a "serious persona" to combat people's perceptions of her, she is still fighting against it.
During a conversation about Jenna Ortega, Natalie told Harper's Bazaar magazine: “We’re both physically tiny, so people will often treat you like a child forever.
“I’m 43 now, and people kind of pat me on the head. I don’t look like a child, but I often feel like I’m treated like a kid.
"Child actors often cultivate a serious persona because otherwise they’ll get treated like kids forever.
"When you start working as a kid, you kind of always feel like a kid in the workplace. Having some of that seriousness helps remind people, ‘I’m a grown-up.’ ”
Natalie and Jenna have worked together in new comedy thriller 'The Gallerist', and the 'Fountain of Youth' actress noticed they have a similar process in between takes.
She explained: “We don’t sit in a chair; we just kind of squat in the corner.
"Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was also a child actress, said she did it too — that it’s a way of grounding yourself.
"There’d be all these chairs, but we’d just squat and look at each other and be like, ‘Wow, this is weird.’ ”
