WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.480 Imagine being a global icon -like, truly world 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.900 famous, who skipped the premiere of the biggest 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:08.779 blockbuster of the decade. Right. I mean, I'm 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:12.060 talking about Star Wars, Episode I, and skiffing 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:14.560 it because you had to study for your high school 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:16.820 finals. It sounds almost like a fabricated PR 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:18.760 story, doesn't it? Yeah, totally. Like a myth 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:21.019 a publicist cooks up just to make a celebrity 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:24.440 seem grounded. But in this case, it is entirely 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.920 true. Exactly. Okay, so let's unpack this. Today, 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:30.059 we're not just looking at a standard Hollywood 00:00:30.059 --> 00:00:32.640 resume. No, we're not. We are taking a deep dive 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:34.939 into the life of Natalie Portman, and we're using 00:00:34.939 --> 00:00:38.240 her incredibly comprehensive Wikipedia page as 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:40.520 our guide for this. It is remarkably detailed, 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.399 yeah. It really is. And our mission for you today 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:46.659 is to explore how a child star maintained her 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:49.439 autonomy, prioritized her intellect over her 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:53.689 immense fame, and navigated incredibly complex 00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:55.810 political identities on the global stage. Which 00:00:55.810 --> 00:00:58.109 is not easy to do. Not at all. I mean this is 00:00:58.109 --> 00:01:00.969 basically a shortcut to understanding the architecture 00:01:00.969 --> 00:01:03.609 of a uniquely deliberate career. What's fascinating 00:01:03.609 --> 00:01:06.250 here is how Portman has consistently used her 00:01:06.250 --> 00:01:08.569 academic and personal background to insulate 00:01:08.569 --> 00:01:10.989 herself. Insulate herself from what, exactly? 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:14.530 From the typical, often tragic pitfalls of child 00:01:14.530 --> 00:01:16.590 stardom. I mean, she didn't just survive an industry 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:20.290 that notoriously chews up young actors. She actively 00:01:20.290 --> 00:01:23.030 neutralized its power over her. And to really 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.670 understand how she did that, we have to look 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:28.689 at the foundation, right? So she was born Natalie 00:01:28.689 --> 00:01:31.790 Hirschlag in Jerusalem. Yes. and her family history 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:34.810 carries incredible weight. We're talking about 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:37.829 a paternal grandfather whose family perished 00:01:37.829 --> 00:01:40.250 in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. It's heavy. 00:01:40.489 --> 00:01:43.109 It is. And a paternal grandmother who worked 00:01:43.109 --> 00:01:46.329 as a British spy during World War II. Think about 00:01:46.329 --> 00:01:48.530 that for a second. That's incredible. Like, imagine 00:01:48.530 --> 00:01:51.629 bringing home, like, a B -minus on a report card 00:01:51.629 --> 00:01:55.230 to a grandmother who was a literal spy. That 00:01:55.230 --> 00:01:57.310 is not your typical Hollywood origin story. Not 00:01:57.310 --> 00:02:00.250 at all. It grounds her narrative in historical 00:02:00.250 --> 00:02:03.010 trauma and extreme resilience right from day 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:06.109 one. So when her family migrated to the US, eventually 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:08.650 settling in Long Island, she was already this 00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:12.210 very serious, ambitious kid. And the industry 00:02:12.210 --> 00:02:15.870 found her fast. Really fast. Yeah. At age 10, 00:02:15.930 --> 00:02:18.530 she was spotted by a Revlon agent at a local 00:02:18.530 --> 00:02:20.789 pizza place. Right. But here's where her brain 00:02:20.789 --> 00:02:23.090 is already working differently. Instead of just 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:25.849 saying yes to modeling, Which most 10 -year -olds 00:02:25.849 --> 00:02:28.770 would absolutely do. Exactly. She leveraged that 00:02:28.770 --> 00:02:31.610 offer to get an acting agent instead. At 10 years 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:34.650 old. It's wild. And by 12, she's making her film 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:37.750 debut in Leon, The Professional. Right. Playing 00:02:37.750 --> 00:02:40.909 the young protege of a hitman. But her parents 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:44.050 were deeply concerned about the explicit violent 00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:46.650 and sexual nature of that script. Understandably 00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:48.569 so. Yeah, they actually pushed the director. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:51.520 Luc Besson, to alter it. They demanded the removal 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:55.159 of nudity and killings committed by her character. 00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:57.539 Which perfectly highlights the immediate collision 00:02:57.539 --> 00:03:00.060 between a young girl's reality and the entertainment 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:02.379 industry's tendency to just sexualize youth. 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:05.159 Yeah. Even after the edits, her mother was still 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:07.099 displeased with some of the sexual undertones 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.659 in the finished film. I mean, you can see why. 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:12.819 Right. And this early exposure to the adult gaze 00:03:12.819 --> 00:03:15.800 profoundly impacted Portman's trajectory. I mean, 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.659 she later turned down the lead in Lolita. due 00:03:18.659 --> 00:03:21.919 to its excessive sexual content. Wow. Yeah, and 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:24.639 she dropped out of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo Plus 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.860 Juliet because studio executives felt she was 00:03:27.860 --> 00:03:30.620 just too young to play opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:34.539 It's like Hollywood treats young girls as highly 00:03:34.539 --> 00:03:37.520 valuable but incredibly fragile commodities. 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:39.719 That's a great way to put it. They want, and 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.699 this is a quote from Portman herself, the idealized 00:03:42.699 --> 00:03:45.000 purity combined with the fertility of youth. 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:47.699 Which is a chilling way to describe it. It really 00:03:47.699 --> 00:03:50.800 is. And she later shared a truly disturbing Me 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:54.099 Too revelation from this era. Get this, her local 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.879 radio station actually created a public countdown 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:59.819 to her 18th birthday. Oh, that's just gross. 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:02.400 The legal age of consent, a public countdown. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.680 Yeah, it's horrifying. But looking at Leon... 00:04:05.689 --> 00:04:07.530 Even with the edits her parents fought for, I 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:10.069 have to ask, wasn't doing that film still forcing 00:04:10.069 --> 00:04:12.050 her into the deep end before she was ready? Well, 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:14.069 it's a completely valid question. You'd think 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:15.870 that kind of pressure cooker would just break 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.250 a kid. Right? But looking at the sources, we 00:04:19.250 --> 00:04:22.110 see that this early exposure actually forged 00:04:22.110 --> 00:04:24.829 her boundaries. Oh, so? Instead of passively 00:04:24.829 --> 00:04:27.449 accepting the objectification, it gave her a 00:04:27.449 --> 00:04:29.610 hyper -awareness of how she was being perceived. 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:32.170 Oh, I see. She realized early on that she had 00:04:32.170 --> 00:04:34.459 to protect herself. It made her reluctant to 00:04:34.459 --> 00:04:36.980 do what she called sexy stuff and pushed her 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:40.079 toward much more serious grounded endeavors. 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:43.019 Like what? Well, for instance, rather than cashing 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:46.560 in on blockbuster teen roles, she went to Broadway 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.399 to star in the diary of Anne Frank. Oh, wow. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.019 Yeah. And she drew directly on her own family's 00:04:52.019 --> 00:04:54.339 history with the Holocaust to connect with that 00:04:54.339 --> 00:04:57.339 role. So she essentially pivoted away from being 00:04:57.339 --> 00:05:00.259 an object, right? She moved to an arena where 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:02.839 she had complete control, her intellect and her 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:05.500 heritage. Precisely. Which brings us to the late 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:08.560 90s, where she is cast as Padme Amela in the 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:11.220 Star Wars prequel trilogy. A massive cultural 00:05:11.220 --> 00:05:14.259 moment. Huge. It instantly makes her a global 00:05:14.259 --> 00:05:16.839 star, but it wasn't a smooth ride, was it? No, 00:05:16.939 --> 00:05:19.300 not at all. She felt heavily criticized for her 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:21.360 performances, and actually struggled to find 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.620 work afterward. Yeah, the transition from child 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:27.879 actor to adult star is notoriously difficult. 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:31.660 And Star Wars, despite its massive box office... 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:34.500 Which was astronomical. Right. Despite that, 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.620 it didn't give her the dramatic credibility she 00:05:36.620 --> 00:05:38.500 was really looking for, but here's the brilliant 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:41.620 part. Okay. While she was dealing with the fallout 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.680 of being this highly scrutinized sci -fi icon, 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.639 she was quietly building a completely different 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:50.060 kind of authority. Here's where it gets really 00:05:50.060 --> 00:05:52.959 interesting. Think about a time in your own life 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:55.800 where you felt totally overwhelmed by your environment. 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:58.379 We've all been there. Portman's solution wasn't 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:00.959 to hide. It was to find a room where she was 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:03.420 the smartest person, not the most famous. Yes. 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:05.800 While finishing high school, she co -authored 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.399 a science paper. I have to read the title to 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:10.399 you because it's amazing. Please do. A simple 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:12.420 method to demonstrate the enzymatic production 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:14.800 of hydrogen from sugar. Just rolls right off 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.079 the tongue. Right. And this was entered into 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:21.060 the Intel Science Talent Search. Then, from 1999 00:06:21.060 --> 00:06:24.860 to 2003, she goes to Harvard to study psychology. 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:28.540 She basically treated being a global sci -fi 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:32.019 icon like a weekend side hustle to her main job 00:06:32.019 --> 00:06:34.060 of being a college student. It's true, and we 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:36.519 need to emphasize she wasn't just auditing classes 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:38.779 for fun, you know, to look good for the press. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:42.100 No, she was deeply involved. Exactly. She served 00:06:42.100 --> 00:06:44.920 as Alan Dershowitz's research assistant. She 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:47.920 contributed to a neurobiology study on memory, 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:50.800 specifically, frontal lobe activation and object 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:52.879 permanence. While being a movie star. While being 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:55.259 a movie star. And later, while she was filming 00:06:55.259 --> 00:06:58.100 the movie Free Zone in Israel, she actually took 00:06:58.100 --> 00:07:00.560 graduate courses at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:02.980 Wait, really? What was she studying there? She 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:05.040 was studying the anthropology of violence and 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:06.600 Middle Eastern studies. Okay, I had to pause 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:08.379 there. What is the practical application of that? 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:11.300 What do you mean? I mean, how does studying object 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:14.560 permanence or the anthropology of violence relate 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:16.540 to someone whose day job is basically standing 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:18.879 on a mark and reading lines? Well, it's actually 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.300 the ultimate actor's toolkit if you connect it 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:24.000 to the bigger picture. Her academic pursuits 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.019 weren't just a backup plan. They were unnecessary 00:07:27.019 --> 00:07:29.899 psychological grounding. Oh, interesting. Break 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:32.379 that down for me. Sure. Think about object permanence. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:34.860 It's about understanding that things exist even 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.899 when they can't be seen. Right. Acting is fundamentally 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:41.139 about convincing an audience that a rich, complex, 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.920 internal life exists behind a simple facial expression. 00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:48.040 Oh, wow. I never thought of it like that. Yeah. 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.899 And the anthropology of violence. That is the 00:07:50.899 --> 00:07:53.579 study of how societies and individuals process 00:07:53.579 --> 00:07:55.959 collective trauma. Right, okay. When you think 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.259 about the roles she eventually takes on, women 00:07:58.259 --> 00:08:01.180 dealing with immense grief or psychological fracturing, 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.040 these studies aren't random. They are the mechanisms 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:06.500 she uses to build characters. That makes so much 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:08.720 sense. She basically used academia as a pressure 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:12.060 release valve. Exactly. She took the insane expectations 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:15.040 of Hollywood and vented them into a space where 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.970 only object— facts and hard work mattered. There's 00:08:17.970 --> 00:08:19.889 a quote from her during this time that I think 00:08:19.889 --> 00:08:22.209 explains everything. She said, I don't care if 00:08:22.209 --> 00:08:24.649 college ruins my career, I'd rather be smart 00:08:24.649 --> 00:08:27.230 than a movie star. It's a powerful statement. 00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:29.870 And because she established her own intellectual 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.809 worth outside of the studio system, she felt 00:08:32.809 --> 00:08:35.370 secure enough to take real creative risks when 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:37.870 she returned fully to acting. She had leverage. 00:08:38.029 --> 00:08:41.830 She had agency, yes. For example, taking on the 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:44.750 romantic drama Closer in 2004, which earned her 00:08:44.750 --> 00:08:47.929 an Oscar nomination. Great movie. It is. She 00:08:47.929 --> 00:08:50.330 agreed to the mature role, but insisted that 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:52.990 deleted nude scenes remain entirely out of the 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:55.309 final cut. Oh, good for her. Yeah, she deemed 00:08:55.309 --> 00:08:57.740 them inessential to the story. and she had the 00:08:57.740 --> 00:09:00.240 power to say no. And she followed that up with 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:02.940 V for Vendetta, where she voluntarily shaved 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:07.000 her head on camera just to rid herself of vanity. 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:09.419 Right. So this intellectual curiosity wasn't 00:09:09.419 --> 00:09:12.580 just an academic exercise. It directly informed 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:15.919 her methodology. Her insistence on extreme psychological 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:19.200 prep became her trademark. It really did. And 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.259 it's exactly what director Darren Aronofsky needed 00:09:22.259 --> 00:09:25.600 when he was looking for someone capable of portraying 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.379 a literal fracturing psyche, which of course 00:09:29.379 --> 00:09:32.600 leads us to Black Swan. Right. To play a ballerina 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:35.100 whose mind is unraveling under the pressure of 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:38.080 perfectionism, Portman trained for five to eight 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.779 hours a day. Wow. For six months. And she lost 00:09:41.779 --> 00:09:44.259 20 pounds. And she won the Academy Award for 00:09:44.259 --> 00:09:46.440 Best Actress for it. But I got to jump in here, 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:49.639 though. Sure. There was a huge uproar. Right 00:09:49.639 --> 00:09:52.600 after she won that Oscar because her dance double 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:55.179 came out and said Portman basically did none 00:09:55.179 --> 00:09:57.659 of the full -body dancing Yes, I remember that 00:09:57.659 --> 00:10:00.279 if so much of that performance was the physical 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:03.500 illusion of being a ballerina Doesn't that controversy 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:06.500 diminish the acting achievement for you? Or is 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:08.320 the physical transformation just one piece of 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.809 the puzzle? Well, it's a fair critique of the 00:10:10.809 --> 00:10:12.970 movie's marketing, certainly. Right. The director 00:10:12.970 --> 00:10:15.490 defended her, saying she did 80 % of the on -screen 00:10:15.490 --> 00:10:18.169 dancing. But to answer your question, the acting 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:20.509 is what secured the Oscar. The performance itself. 00:10:21.029 --> 00:10:24.009 Exactly. The Academy wasn't rewarding her for 00:10:24.009 --> 00:10:27.210 executing a flawless grand jeté. They were rewarding 00:10:27.210 --> 00:10:30.649 her portrayal of a woman consumed by paranoia 00:10:30.649 --> 00:10:33.629 to the point of absolute madness. Yeah, that 00:10:33.629 --> 00:10:35.909 makes sense. Her psychology background paid off 00:10:35.909 --> 00:10:38.340 in mapping out that mental descent. And if you 00:10:38.340 --> 00:10:40.879 look at her range afterward, it is staggering. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.580 It really is. She goes from a troubled ballerina, 00:10:43.820 --> 00:10:47.279 to a grieving First Lady and Jackie, to a Marvel 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:50.240 superhero in the Thor franchise. Quite the spectrum. 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:53.340 Yeah. And speaking of Thor... Even when joining 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:55.600 the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Jane Foster, 00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:59.159 she brought that same academic rigor. She did. 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:02.220 She prepared by reading biographies of real female 00:11:02.220 --> 00:11:04.820 scientists, like Rosalind Franklin. That's awesome. 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:07.440 And when she returned years later for Thor, Love 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.419 and Thunder, she did it because director Taika 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:11.720 Waititi promised to let the character actually 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:14.000 be fun. Right, a different side of her. Yeah. 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:17.320 She even took the Mjolnir, Thor's mythical hammer 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:19.620 home, to practice her stunts. I just love the 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:21.980 visual of an Oscar winner accidentally smacking 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:24.220 a lamp in her living room with a giant foam hammer. 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:27.740 It's a great image. But that intense granular 00:11:27.740 --> 00:11:30.960 preparation was put to its ultimate test in Jackie. 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:33.539 Oh, absolutely. Where she portrayed Jacqueline 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:36.100 Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of the JFK 00:11:36.100 --> 00:11:39.100 assassination. Remember her studies in the anthropology 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.320 of violence. Right, how people process trauma. 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:45.649 Exactly. She spent hours analyzing Kennedy's 00:11:45.649 --> 00:11:48.690 audio tapes, not just to nail her highly specific 00:11:48.690 --> 00:11:51.970 dialect, but to study the breathing, the pauses, 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:54.950 the auditory markers of profound psychological 00:11:54.950 --> 00:11:57.289 trauma that she was masking. Incredible. And 00:11:57.289 --> 00:11:59.149 she eventually took all this experience behind 00:11:59.149 --> 00:12:01.830 the camera, making her directorial debut with 00:12:01.830 --> 00:12:04.570 a tale of love and darkness adapted from Amos 00:12:04.570 --> 00:12:06.870 Oz's book. And she shot that entirely in Hebrew, 00:12:07.049 --> 00:12:10.049 right? She did. So this desire to take charge 00:12:10.049 --> 00:12:12.970 of her own narrative on screen naturally translates 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.120 to taking charge of structures in the real world. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:17.100 Absolutely. She isn't just an actor, she's a 00:12:17.100 --> 00:12:19.759 business owner and an activist. She formed Mountain 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.039 A, a production company that produced acclaimed 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:24.519 projects like May, December and the miniseries 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:27.230 Lady and the Lake. Her activism is equally structured. 00:12:27.570 --> 00:12:30.129 Take her stance on animal rights. She became 00:12:30.129 --> 00:12:32.950 a vegetarian at age eight after seeing a demonstration 00:12:32.950 --> 00:12:35.769 of laser surgery on a chicken. Wait, really? 00:12:35.870 --> 00:12:37.769 Yeah, at a medical conference she attended with 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:41.190 her father. Later in 2009, she read Jonathan 00:12:41.190 --> 00:12:43.789 Safran Foer's book, Eating Animals, went fully 00:12:43.789 --> 00:12:46.649 vegan and even produced a documentary based on 00:12:46.649 --> 00:12:48.529 the book. Wait, I have to pause here. So what 00:12:48.529 --> 00:12:51.309 does this all mean? How does witnessing laser 00:12:51.309 --> 00:12:54.940 surgery on a chicken at age eight? completely 00:12:54.940 --> 00:12:57.779 rewire a kid's brain, to the point where they 00:12:57.779 --> 00:13:00.700 launch a vegan footwear line. decades later. 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:02.860 I mean, most kids would just say, ew, and forget 00:13:02.860 --> 00:13:05.000 about it by lunchtime. It's true, but it's what 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:08.620 we could call institutionalized empathy. Institutionalized 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:10.799 empathy? Yeah, it reveals a distinct pattern 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:13.279 in how Portland operates. She doesn't just adopt 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:16.139 a pet cause for good PR or, you know, just post 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:18.899 a hashtag. Right. She turns personal shock or 00:13:18.899 --> 00:13:21.539 empathy into structured systemic action. That 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:23.600 makes sense. We see this with her microfinance 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:25.879 work too. As an ambassador for Finca, she didn't 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:29.080 just write a check. She traveled to Uganda, Guatemala, 00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:32.490 and Ecuador to help finance women -owned businesses. 00:13:32.850 --> 00:13:36.250 And then, she physically toured university campuses 00:13:36.250 --> 00:13:38.970 to educate students about village banking. We 00:13:38.970 --> 00:13:41.470 see that exact same drive for systemic change 00:13:41.470 --> 00:13:44.610 in sports too. Yes, Angel City. Right. She co 00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:46.990 -founded Angel City FC, which is a team in the 00:13:46.990 --> 00:13:49.549 National Women's Soccer League. And she did it 00:13:49.549 --> 00:13:52.649 with a majority female ownership group, explicitly 00:13:52.649 --> 00:13:55.389 aiming to shift the culture and economics of 00:13:55.389 --> 00:13:57.629 professional football. It's a massive undertaking. 00:13:57.909 --> 00:14:00.559 It is. She's also waded into domestic politics, 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:02.919 endorsing Democratic candidates over the years, 00:14:03.100 --> 00:14:05.779 and in 2020, endorsing the defund the police 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:08.980 movement and collaborating with Justice LA. Now, 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:11.600 building structures and taking firm stands is 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:13.679 one thing. But it naturally brings us to the 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:16.360 most complex, scrutinized, and politically charged 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:19.019 area of her public life. Which is? Her relationship 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.940 with her birthplace, navigating her dual Israeli 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:24.740 and American citizenship, has placed her in the 00:14:24.740 --> 00:14:27.120 absolute center of intense geopolitical debates. 00:14:27.259 --> 00:14:29.539 OK, before we go further, as we dive into these 00:14:29.539 --> 00:14:31.779 political sources, we want to be incredibly clear 00:14:31.779 --> 00:14:34.220 to you, the listener. We are not taking sides, 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:36.460 nor are we endorsing any of the viewpoints we're 00:14:36.460 --> 00:14:38.519 about to discuss from the source material. Right. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:42.120 We are simply unpacking the historical and factual 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:45.340 record of her public statements as provided in 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:48.120 our sources. That's a crucial distinction because 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:51.039 her stance on Israel is highly nuanced. And as 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:53.480 a result, it's often fiercely criticized by all 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.980 sides. Right. Portman herself describes her relationship 00:14:56.980 --> 00:14:59.559 with Israel as being, and this is a quote, like 00:14:59.559 --> 00:15:01.980 family. You love it more than anything else in 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:03.820 the world. And you are also more critical of 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:05.940 it than anything else in the world. Over the 00:15:05.940 --> 00:15:08.379 years, she has a documented history of defending 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:11.590 Israel. Back when she was at Harvard, she actually 00:15:11.590 --> 00:15:14.289 wrote a letter to the Harvard Crimson disputing 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:17.309 an essay that compared Israeli actions to racial 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.529 apartheid. She did. And after the 2006 Lebanon 00:15:20.529 --> 00:15:23.509 War, she actively raised funds for the reconstruction 00:15:23.509 --> 00:15:25.889 of northern Israel. However, she has also been 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:27.769 fiercely critical of the Israeli government, 00:15:28.009 --> 00:15:29.990 specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 00:15:30.029 --> 00:15:32.490 Right. She publicly stated her disappointment 00:15:32.490 --> 00:15:34.990 in his reelection, calling his comments racist, 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:37.470 and she strongly criticized the passing of the 00:15:37.470 --> 00:15:39.919 nation's state bill. explicitly describing it 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.159 as a racist law. This tension really reached 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:45.379 an absolute boiling point with the Genesis Prize 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:48.480 controversy in 2018. It certainly did. She was 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.320 awarded this prize, which is essentially dubbed 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:53.940 the Jewish Nobel, and it comes with two million 00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:57.730 dollars. She announced she would not attend the 00:15:57.730 --> 00:16:00.590 ceremony in Israel due to recent events that 00:16:00.590 --> 00:16:02.830 left her feeling uncomfortable attending public 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:05.909 events there. This was widely understood by the 00:16:05.909 --> 00:16:08.669 public and the press to be a reference to the 00:16:08.669 --> 00:16:10.789 killings and wounding of Palestinian protesters 00:16:10.789 --> 00:16:13.830 by Israeli fire during the Gaza border protests. 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:16.690 And the backlash to that decision was immediate 00:16:16.690 --> 00:16:19.149 and severe. It was intense. Israeli politicians 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:22.190 heavily criticized her. The Likud party condemned 00:16:22.190 --> 00:16:24.830 her position. Culture Minister Miri Regev spoke 00:16:24.830 --> 00:16:27.409 out. And one Neset member even called for her 00:16:27.409 --> 00:16:29.990 Israeli citizenship to be revoked entirely. Wow. 00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:32.830 Yeah, accusing her of supporting the BDS boycott, 00:16:32.990 --> 00:16:35.330 divestment, and sanctions movement. But she quickly 00:16:35.330 --> 00:16:37.970 issued a clarification, right? Pushing back against 00:16:37.970 --> 00:16:40.450 that narrative. Yes, she did. She explicitly 00:16:40.450 --> 00:16:43.070 stated she does not support the BDS movement 00:16:43.070 --> 00:16:46.289 and was not boycotting the nation itself. She 00:16:46.289 --> 00:16:48.409 explained that she simply did not want to appear 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:51.029 to endorse Netanyahu, who was scheduled to speak 00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:54.029 at the event. She stated that her Jewish values 00:16:54.029 --> 00:16:57.090 compelled her to stand up against violence, corruption, 00:16:57.649 --> 00:17:00.789 inequality, and abuse of power. And we see this 00:17:00.789 --> 00:17:03.909 balancing act continuing to evolve. Following 00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:07.509 the events of October 18th, 2023, she condemned 00:17:07.509 --> 00:17:10.609 Hamas, called for the release of hostages, and 00:17:10.609 --> 00:17:13.210 raised funds for children near the Gaza border. 00:17:13.950 --> 00:17:16.130 Shortly after, she marched against anti -Semitism 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:19.150 in Paris. It's the ultimate political tightrope 00:17:19.150 --> 00:17:22.339 walk. But honestly, maybe tightrope is the wrong 00:17:22.339 --> 00:17:23.980 word. It's more like being caught in a vice. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:26.180 That's very true. She's simultaneously attacked 00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:27.980 by some on the left for her fundamental support 00:17:27.980 --> 00:17:31.039 of the state, and threatened with remote citizenship 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.559 by politicians on the right for her criticisms 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:35.779 of the government. This raises an important question, 00:17:35.779 --> 00:17:38.599 I think, about how public figures are demanded 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:41.500 to be monoliths. Oh, absolutely. Society, and 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:44.059 particularly the internet, demands a simple for 00:17:44.059 --> 00:17:47.069 or against binary. It's comfortable. It's easy 00:17:47.069 --> 00:17:50.349 to digest. Exactly. But Portman refuses to be 00:17:50.349 --> 00:17:52.630 flattened into that binary. There's an intellectual 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:56.430 consistency here. Just as she refused to be pigeonholed 00:17:56.430 --> 00:17:59.450 as a sexualized child star and refused to just 00:17:59.450 --> 00:18:02.410 be a popcorn sci -fi actress, she refuses to 00:18:02.410 --> 00:18:04.950 let her dual citizenship identity be flattened 00:18:04.950 --> 00:18:08.890 into a simple for or against binary by either 00:18:08.890 --> 00:18:11.549 side of the political spectrum. It is a remarkable 00:18:11.549 --> 00:18:13.640 journey we've mapped out for you today. I mean, 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:15.819 from a pizza parlor discovery in Long Island 00:18:15.819 --> 00:18:19.200 to navigating the intense, often predatory pressures 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.789 of child stardom. She used Harvard. and a deep 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:26.089 commitment to academia as a shield -like, a literal 00:18:26.089 --> 00:18:28.710 mechanism to protect her sanity, ultimately winning 00:18:28.710 --> 00:18:30.869 an Oscar, becoming a producer, and launching 00:18:30.869 --> 00:18:33.769 a sports team. And through it all, she has maintained 00:18:33.769 --> 00:18:37.369 a fierce grip on her own autonomy, institutionalizing 00:18:37.369 --> 00:18:39.210 her empathy and demanding the right to exist 00:18:39.210 --> 00:18:42.269 in the complex gray areas of global identity. 00:18:42.470 --> 00:18:44.430 We've talked a lot about her acting on screen 00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:46.990 today, but consider this. For someone like Portman, 00:18:47.180 --> 00:18:50.240 With dual citizenship and massive global influence, 00:18:50.900 --> 00:18:53.819 to what extent does simply existing in the public 00:18:53.819 --> 00:18:56.700 eye require a highly calculated performance of 00:18:56.700 --> 00:18:59.359 identity? Oh, wow. When every graduation speech, 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.000 every award acceptance, and every charitable 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.839 donation is scrutinized as a geopolitical statement, 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.119 does a global icon ever truly get to step off 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:10.079 the stage? That is the question to leave you 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.390 with today. Thank you so much for joining us 00:19:12.390 --> 00:19:14.650 on this deep dive. Keep questioning the narratives 00:19:14.650 --> 00:19:17.269 behind the icons you see on screen, and we will 00:19:17.269 --> 00:19:17.990 catch you next time.