Natalie Portman Tells Harvard Grads Inexperience Is Virtue

Image by Getty Images

By JTA May 28, 2015

Actress Natalie Portman told Harvard University seniors to use their inexperience as an asset in their future endeavors.

Portman spoke Wednesday at Harvard Class Day, telling the students that the honor was intimidating, the Boston Globe reported.

Portman is a 2003 graduate of Harvard, with a degree in psychology.

The actress, who has dual American and Israeli citizenships, told the students that she was “so oblivious to my own limitations” when she agreed to star in “The Black Swan,” for which she won an Academy Award for best actress. She took the gig, despite being warned that it was an “artistic risk,” she told the students.

Portman, the Globe reported, told the students she was often anxious and overwhelmed while a student at Harvard, and concluded by saying: “I can’t wait to see the beautiful things you do.”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO