sraeli-born Hollywood actress Natalie Portman is “very disappointed” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was re-elected.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, Portman expressed an extremely negative opinion of the veteran Israeli leader, who has just formed his fourth government.
“I’m very much against Netanyahu. Against. I am very, very upset and disappointed that he was re-elected. I find his racist comments horrific,” the actress, who views herself as “quite leftist,” opined.
“However,” Portman continued, “I don’t – what I want to make sure is, I don’t want to use my platform [the wrong way]. I feel like there’s some people who become prominent, and then it’s out in the foreign press. You know, expletive on Israel. I do not. I don’t want to do that.”
Portman is reported to have participated in a video for V15, a controversial Israeli group aimed at replacing Netanyahu in the last elections. In the end, V15 decided not to release the video, for fear it might be construed as “foreign intervention.”
The Hollywood Reporter interview centered mostly around the actress’ feature directorial debut – an adaptation of Israeli author Amos Oz’s novel A Tale of Love and Darkness.
The film, a Hebrew-language production shot in Israel last year, will premiere next week at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Vocal in her Jewishness, Portman was asked if she feels nervous living in France, a country where anti-Semitism is on the rise. In November, the actress moved to Paris, following her dancer-choreographer husband Benjamin Millepied, who accepted a job with the Paris Opera Ballet.
“Yes,” she responded, “but I’d feel nervous being a black man in this country [the US]. I’d feel nervous being a Muslim in many places.”
Still, when discussing her response to the spate of terror attacks that struck Paris in January, including one on a kosher supermarket, Portman said pointedly, “I’m from Israel.”
