American-Israeli actress Natalie Portman says the recent wave of sexual harassment allegations against US entertainers and politicians made her realize how normalized abuse had become in Hollywood.
In a recent interview with the Vulture website, Portman said that sexual harassment and misconduct is so common that she didn’t even realize she had been abused on multiple occasions.
“I went from thinking I don’t have a story to, ‘Oh wait, I have 100 stories,'” Portman said. “And I think a lot of people are having these reckonings with themselves, of things that we just took for granted as like, this is part of the process.”
Portman said that, until recent allegations arose, she had never considered herself to have been a victim of harassment.
Portman's comments come amid a widespread scandal that has engulfed many American politicians and entertainers over the past several weeks.
Women in the US and UK have recently been coming forward to share encounters of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, including in the media and entertainment industries and the realm of politics.
According to a new YouGov poll, 60 percent of women in the US have been sexually harassed by men.
The unfolding debacle has so far engulfed big names such as Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, renowned interviewer Charlie Rose and award-winning actor Kevin Spacey as well as politicians like Republican Senate hopeful Roy Moore.