Natalie Portman: ‘No one would make Leon today’

Natalie Portman is convinced her breakout movie Leon: The Professional would never get made today, because it’s “largely inappropriate”.
The Oscar winner was 13 when she landed the lead role in the action thriller, opposite Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and though she had a blast on set, she’s not sure the idea of an ultra-violent movie based around a teenager would get greenlighted in 2019.
”I appreciate it when something connects with an audience,” she tells Empire. “It also gave me my career on a platter and was a 100 per cent a positive experience. I loved doing it. But you watch and it’s largely inappropriate.
“There’s a lot of stuff in there that’s not amazing through today’s eyes. I think because people are still connected to it and care about it and I personally did not have anything but positive feelings, I still feel more on the proud side. Even though I totally understand, I don’t know how I’d show that to my kids.”
But it’s still the film she gets the most comments about when she’s out in public: “It’s still the thing people come up to me the most on the street, even more than Star Wars or Black Swan.”