Natalie Portman Revealed A Man Mailed A Rape Fantasy To Her When She Was 13 At Women’s March

Natalie Portman reminded us all that Time’s Up when she talked about how at 13, a grown man sent her a rape fantasy as fan mail. Watch her moving Women’s March speech.

Natalie Portman, 36, starred in her first movie The Professional when she was 12. After the film was released, she received her first fan mail, and of course at 13, she was thrilled. That is, until she opened it and read what it said. “I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me,” she revealed in a powerful speech at the Los Angeles Women’s March on Jan. 20.

This may have been the first time that the Black Swan star felt uncomfortable due to the way men treated her, but it wasn’t the last. “A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday, euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with. Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews,” she added. “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.”

The Academy Award winner went onto explain how she altered her own behavior out of the necessity to feel that her body was her own. “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,” she said. “The response to my expression, from small comments about my body to more threatening, deliberate statements served to control my behavior through an environment of sexual terrorism.”

Thankfully, the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements are well underway, and Natalie is just one of the many women who want to continue making progress toward making our society a safer place. “I’d like to propose one way to continue moving this revolution forward. Let’s declare loud and clear, ‘This is what I want. This is what I need. This is what I desire. This is how you can help me achieve pleasure,'” she added. “To people of all genders here with us today, let’s find a space where we mutually, consensually look out for each other’s pleasure and allow the vast, limitless range of desire to be expressed. Let’s make a revolution of desire.” Well spoken, Natalie. Watch the full video of her moving speech above.

HollywoodLifers, did you attend the Women’s March today? Let us know!