Advertisement

Natalie Portman won’t display her Oscar, calls it ‘a false idol’

Natalie Portman, pictured on May 5, 2015. Jason Merritt / Getty Images

TORONTO — Actress Natalie Portman doesn’t know where her Oscar is — and doesn’t seem to care.

“I think it’s in the safe or something,” she said. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen it in a while.”

Portman, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for 2010’s ballet drama Black Swan, said there’s a reason she hasn’t displayed her statuette somewhere.

“I was reading the story of Abraham to my child and talking about, like, not worshipping false idols,” Portman told The Hollywood Reporter. “And this is literally like gold men. This is literally worshipping gold idols — if you worship it.

“That’s why it’s not displayed on the wall. It’s a false idol.”

BELOW: Watch Natalie Portman’s acceptance speech at the Academy Awards in 2011.

Story continues below advertisement

In addition to her award-winning role, Portman is well known for playing Padmé Amidala in three Star Wars movies and for starring in films like the political thriller V for Vendetta, the made-in-Toronto fantasy Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and the Marvel superhero flicks Thor and Thor: The Dark World.

Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem and raised in New York, Portman, now 33, lives in Paris with husband Benjamin Millepied and their 3-year-old son Aleph.

“I feel like [the U.S.] has a lot of religion and a lot of freedom around that; and [in France], the religion is almost like love,” she said. “Love and intellectualism is their sort of way.”

Portman also prefers the cultural scene in Paris.

“I love that my kid wants to go to art museums after school,” she said. “I love that it’s also not elitist, as it is in New York. You can afford to go to the philharmonic or the opera much more easily because all of it’s subsidized. And there’s a huge culture of cinema there.”

Story continues below advertisement
Asked if she feels nervous about being Jewish in Paris, Portman replied: “Yes, but I’d feel nervous being a black man in [the U.S.]. I’d feel nervous being a Muslim in many places.”

She was in Kenya when terrorists attacked the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 people. But, was she shaken by the attacks?

“Listen,” she told THR. “I’m from Israel.”

Curator Recommendations

Sponsored content

AdChoices