Hollywood Rebel Natalie: ‘Why I'll Never Fit In'

Being her own person is more important than being popular

She’s an Academy Award-winning actress, director and producer, and now Natalie Portman is turning her hand to writing! The 39-year-old has released Natalie Portman’s Fables, which is a modern take on timeless life lessons.

“Books are kind of the first way of practicing empathy,” she shares. “With books, you can feel emotions from a complete stranger and get into what their day may be like.”

Natalie was inspired to retell the classic tales after she found herself changing pronouns of many of the books she was reading to her children, Aleph, nine, and Amalia, four, because they had overwhelmingly male characters.

“There are some valuable lessons and wonderful stories and things you should know about,” she tells. “But how are ways that we can deliver them that might be more reflective of the world as it is?

“For me, the broadest sense of feminism is to end up looking at a human as a human first and not having expectations based on gender about what the person’s personality will be like,” the actress explains.

1994 – THE PROFESSIONAL At 13, Natalie broke onto the scene as a young girl who is taken in by her assassin neighbour and learns the tricks of the trade.

1999 – STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE She held her own in the iconic series, bringing Queen Amidala to life as she fought to save the galaxy.