Natalie Portman Says It Was 'Luck' She Wasn't Harmed As a Child Actor

Portman, who started off as a child actress, appeared on Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast, to promote her new film, May December, where she discussed the dangers young stars in the industry often fall prey to.

"I would not encourage young people to go into this. I don't mean ever; I mean as children," Portman said before touching on her own experience. "I feel it was almost an accident of luck that I was not harmed, also combined with very overprotective, wonderful parents."

She continued, "You don't like it when you're a kid, and you're grateful for it when you're an adult."

Portman said she's heard "too many bad stories" to think that any child should be a part of the industry, let alone her own.

"Having said that," Portman who shares son Aleph, 12, and daughter Amalia, 6 with husband, Benjamin Millepied added, "I know all the conversations that we've been having these past few years. It's made people more aware and careful."

Still, the Oscar-winning actress, said, she doesn't believe that kids should work, instead suggesting they "play and go to school," and enjoy the very things that make them kids.

Portman's latest comments about child acting come just a few months after she talked about her first starring role in Leon: The Professional, which was directed by Luc Besson -- who was accused of and later cleared of sexual misconduct by multiple women.

The now 42-year-old actress was just 12-years-old when she played Mathilda, a young girl who befriends a hitman, played by Jean Reno -- then 45, after her family is murdered.

"It's a movie that's still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I've ever made," she told The Hollywood Reporter in May before touching on her "complicated" relationship with the film. "And it gave me my career. But it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it's complicated for me."

Elsewhere in her conversation with Variety, Portman discussed the changing industry and the blurred lines that exist between television and film, especially in the aftermath of the Hollywood strikes, telling the outlet that she's "as lost as everyone else."

"It seems to be changing all the time. They're like, 'Movies are dead,' but 'No, movies are thriving,' and 'No, streaming is just like TV.' We spent all this time changing our industry to have the same thing we had before," Portman said of the many shifts that have occurred in Hollywood over the last few years. "And meanwhile, I see my kids; they're all just watching YouTube. [It makes you think that] maybe none of this is relevant."

"I want to make what I love and care about and try to keep supporting that," she added. "When you complete those things, they find their audiences and find their people, the people who are passionate about it."