An experience that she clearly did not appreciate! Parisian from 2014 to 2016, while her husband, the French dancer Benjamin Millepied, had won the post of Director of Dance at the Opera, Natalie Portman, who turns 41 this Thursday, is not ready to give a foot in the capital now. “Panicked“At the idea of living in a city she did not know, the Israeli-American actress clearly did not appreciate her stay in France.
The hardest thing for her? The behavior of the inhabitants, who judged her too much according to what she then confided in the columns of the Guardian. “The French are judgmental, especially in Paris, on your way of being but also on the way you dress. You cannot wear sports clothes on the street, sandals, shorts or bright colors“, she explained, a very personal feeling, followed by different cultural shocks.
Guest of Jimmy Kimmel, she explained that the French were too cold for her: “Everyone smiles a lot here [aux Etats-Unis, ndlr]. It’s nice. They are colder in France. I didn’t realize I had gotten used to it until I came back here, and it surprised me“. But the French are also too polite for an American, a rather surprising criticism but which particularly shocked her.
“A friend explained to me that you should say hello before saying anything when you arrive somewhere and wait to be answered. If you walk into a store, you can’t immediately say ‘Do you have this in another size?’ otherwise they will think you are badly brought up and will be rude to you”she had also told in the same program, in which she had decided to explain all the reasons for their return to Los Angeles.
A rather strong homesickness for the actress who does not seem a fan of France, although she speaks the language very well. In any case, the experience did not last long: the couple, still as much in love, returned to Los Angeles fourteen months later, accompanied by their son Aleph, now 11 years old. A little Amalia then came to complete the family in 2017.