Natalie Portman says it was an 'accident of luck that I was not harmed' as a child actor, and says kids shouldn't be working in Hollywood

• Natalie Portman has enjoyed a successful acting career for about 30 years.
• Now, she says she was lucky that she didn't get harmed in the industry when she was young.

Natalie Portman can do it all — she's an Academy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, a director and producer, and a mother to two children.

Now 42 with about 30 years of acting experience, Portman told Variety that she wouldn't tell people to enter the Hollywood sphere at a young age.

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

Portman's illustrious acting career bloomed as she entered her tween years. She started on off-Broadway musicals and made her film debut in 1994's "Léon: The Professional" at age 13. (She was cast at 11 and filmed the movie at 12.)

While still in high school, she acted in the "Star Wars" prequels as Padmé Amidala.

In 2020, Portman told Business Insider that starting acting at a young age was a "big time of transformation" for her.

"I feel like it was really lucky for me to get to do what I loved so early and see that you could do that as a grown-up, make-believe for a living, which is pretty astonishing," she said.

It wasn't all easy, though.

Throughout her career, Portman has said she was scrutinized by the media and faced "sexual terrorism" from older men.

At the 2018 Women's March, Portman discussed how a local radio show started a countdown to her 18th birthday when she would be "euphemistically" legal to have sex with.

"I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me," Portman said, adding, "Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews."

Though she is enjoying her career now, she said in her Variety interview that she's thankful her parents watched over her at its inception.

"You don't like it when you're a kid, and you're grateful for it when you're an adult," Portman said. "I've heard too many bad stories to think that any children should be part of it."

Instead of acting, Portman says kids should be enjoying their childhood.

"Ultimately, I don't believe that kids should work," Portman told Variety. "I think kids should play and go to school."