She was at the event on behalf of her new movie, Lucy in the Sky, which compares women failing in their careers to their male counterparts.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFCast member Natalie Portman poses at a premiere for the movie "Vox Lux" in Los Angeles, California, December 5, 2018(photo credit: MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS)
Natalie Portman, the Oscar-winning Israeli-American actress, gave a speech at ELLE's annual Women in Hollywood event last Monday where she talked about women and failure from a woman's point of view. She was at the event on behalf of her new movie,Lucy in the Sky, which compares women failing in their careers to their male counterparts. In her new role, she plays a female astronaut who "loses her cool and loses everything." In her speech, Portman says, "the experience of playing this character made me yearn for a woman's right to f*ck up. To f*ck up and not be interminably punished for it. Because we know, as we tell our kids, that making mistakes is the only way we learn."She continued to discuss how people's perception of actresses is often incorrect, and that most of the women in attendance are the "hardest working, the least complaining, the best personalities you can find." Because these women know that if they are hard to work with, they're not going to get another job, she explained. Portman ends her speech by saying she hopes one day men will be held to the same standards as women and "alongside talent, kindness, respect, and being easy to work with are valued as essential characteristics to getting hired."She ends her speech by saying that their job is to "f*ck up" and then "go out post-mistake and succeed wildly."Back in 2018, Natalie Portman was also awarded the Genesis Prize - the "Jewish Nobel" - but refused to come to the ceremony in Israel.Her representative cited that "recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel."The prize "honors individuals who serve as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding professional achievement along with their commitment to Jewish values and the Jewish people." ELLE Magazine contributed to this report.
