Natalie Portman talks insecurity, ‘Black Swan’ in Harvard Class Day speech
Actress Natalie Portman took to Harvard’s Class Day stage Wednesday to deliver a speech to the same university she graduated from in 2003.
Her message to the new graduates? Confidence is everything.
The Academy Award-winner shared her own insecurities and Harvard memories— some happier than others— in the stirring 20 minute address.
“Today I feel much like I did when I came to Harvard Yard as a freshman in 1999,’’ she said. “I felt like there had been some mistake, that I wasn’t smart enough to be in this company, and that every time I opened my mouth I would have to prove that I wasn’t just a dumb actress.’’
Portman recalled her own Harvard Class Day, and that her peers, “hung over, or even freshly-high, mainly wanted to laugh.’’
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Portman, who apologized for not being a comedian, did make the crowd laugh— and perhaps cry— as she recalled her progression into stardom despite breakdowns and sleepless nights spent in Harvard’s library. The actress insisted that she owes some of her careers greatest moments to blind confidence.
“When Darren asked me if I could do ballet I told him that I was basically a ballerina, which by the way, I whole-heartedly believed,’’ Portman said of her success in director Darren Aronofksy’s 2010 film Black Swan.
“If I had known my limitations I never would have taken the risk.’’
2015 commencement speakers in Massachusetts
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