Natalie Portman Entered Harvard Eager to Prove She 'Wasn't Just a Dumb Actress'
The actress spoke at the school's commencement.
— -- Natalie Portman returned to her alma mater, Harvard University, on Wednesday to serve as the keynote speaker at Harvard's Class Day.
The "Thor" star, who began her speech by noting it was "one of the most exciting things I've ever been asked to do," also admitted that upon her arrival at the university, she was eager to prove that she "wasn't just a dumb actress."
"When I came in as a freshman in 1999, I felt like there had been some mistake" and "that I wasn't smart enough to be in this company," the 33-year-old actress confessed.
Portman noted during her appearance in Cambridge that when she got to Harvard just after the release of "Star Wars: Episode I," she feared people "would assume I had gotten in just for being famous, and not worthy of the intellectual rigor here."
While Portman eventually got over her initial insecurity, she faced other hardships, including, "being 19, dealing with my first heartbreak [and] taking birth control that's now off the market due to its depressive side effects."
She graduated Harvard in 2003 with a degree in psychology, but soon realized that acting, which she had dismissed as "frivolous" in the past, was her true passion.
"I admitted to myself I couldn't wait to go back and make more films," she said. "I had reclaimed my reason."
For the complete speech, see below.
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