Actress Natalie Portman told the crowd at the Los Angeles Women's March on Saturday that she experienced "sexual terrorism" after her first movie role at the age of 12.  Recounting her story, Portman stated she was "excited" as a 13-year-old to receive her first fan mail when the controversial movie The Professional opened in 1994.  However, one of the very first letters she read detailed a "rape fantasy" inspired by the actress's performance as a kind-hearted killer's Lolita.

This "terrorism," she said, continued throughout her teen years as she became increasingly well known.  No doubt, playing a sexualized, vulnerable orphan in a relationship with an older man was psychologically disturbing for the youngster.  But whose fault is that?  Incredibly, she suggests that acting in a  movie with undertones of adult-child sex is not the problem.  It's the male culture.

From YouTube:

Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews.  I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually, I would feel unsafe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort. 

At 13 years old, the message from our culture was clear to me.  I felt the need to cover my body and to inhibit my expression and my work in order to send my own message to the world that I'm someone worthy of safety and respect.

The response to my expression, from small comments about my body to more deliberate statements, served to control my behavior through an environment of sexual terrorism.

I sympathize with Portman's anguish at being objectified at the tender age of 13.  In fact, I have such compassion for the young thespian's trauma that, as a mother, I would have said, "Sorry: I won't subject my daughter to crazy fans and sexual predators."

That rape letter should have been a game-changer for any parent.  If the movie industry is rife with depraved men and "sexual terrorism," as Portman stated, why would a mother willingly put her child in this kind of danger?

What did Natalie's mother and father think about their daughter's ordeal?  Portman did not say whether she even told them about the sexual torment she says she endured as a teen star.

A cursory search on Portman's parents' reaction to their daughter starring in The Professional did reveal some interesting details.

First, the French director Luc Besson had to alter the original script.  Why?  In the first draft, the 12-year old and 40-something hit man became lovers.

Secondly, the director definitely wanted a child in the part.  Another American actress, Liv Tyler, was considered too old at 15 and subsequently was turned down for the role.

An online entertainment site, Zimbio, did report that Portman's parents objected to the smoking scenes and demanded that there should be only five in all and that Natalie should not be shown exhaling or inhaling.

As far as the creepiness of the relationship between the characters, Mathilda (Portman) and Léon (French actor Jean Reno), the uncut 1996 European release contained the more sexually suggestive scenes edited out of the American version.  Did her parents consider smoking more harmful than the pedophilia angle?  What about their daughter dressing up as Marilyn Monroe to seduce Léon in another scene?

From Zimbio:

The initial cut of the film had more scenes with "awkward sexual tension" between Mathilda and Léon.  These scenes were later removed for the American release, dubbed The Professional, but were included in the 1996 European release, as well as in the deleted scenes of the special edition DVD.  They were reintegrated back into the film for the "International Cut," which is now available on Blu-ray/DVD.  When the film was first tested in Los Angeles, the movie included a short scene where Mathilda asks Léon to be her lover.  However, the audience became extremely uncomfortable and began to laugh nervously, completely destroying the tone of the film.

In the promo for the The Professional, the poster has Reno staring into the camera with a gun in his hand on one side and holding Portman close on the other.  It reads, "A perfect assassin.  An innocent girl.  They have nothing left to lose except each other."

The bottom line is Portman's parents allowed her to act in a pro-pedophile movie at the age of 12.  Millions of people saw the movie, and a potentially dangerous wacko allegedly sent the 13-year-old a frightening, sexually explicit letter.  Her parents, who are the child's first line of defense, could have refused the role.  Perhaps the siren call of fame and fortune trumped exposing her to Hollywood deviants and menacing fans.  I don't know.

But for Portman, a Harvard graduate, to stand on a stage and actually say, "Maybe men can say and do whatever they want, but women cannot; the current system prohibits us from expressing our desires, our wants, and needs, from seeking our pleasure" is ludicrous.  It doesn't even rise to the level of being a lie, because it is so ludicrous.  One can sincerely ask, "What is she talking about?"

All "men" can say and do whatever they want, Natalie?  Or just the ones who write rape letters? 

What is now amounting to a war on men is the real "sexual terrorism" happening with these leftist front movements, #MeToo and #TimesUp.  And Portman, along with other high-profile actresses who make sexually charged and perverse movies, are their complicit tools.