A few months ago, Natalie Portman welcomed her third child, her first with partner Tanguy Destable. Natalie is mother to 15-year-old Aleph and 9-year-old Amalia, and I have no idea what those kids look like. That’s because Natalie has been mainly living in Paris for years now, and the French paparazzi do not swarm Natalie or her kids. Natalie spoke about that with Harper’s Bazaar – the bulk of the interview was conducted over the summer, before Natalie gave birth, but she gave them some comments about welcoming her third kid.

The French paparazzi: “When I was pregnant in New York and L.A., I was followed by 20 men every day. There’s so much interest in pregnant women in particular. I’d never been bothered more. And here, they know, and I’ve been almost completely left alone.”

Giving birth to her third: She tells me that she is “full of wonder and joy at this magical little human. It gives me a whole new attention to my big kids too, as I am reminded of how recently they were these little fresh creations and how quickly they’ve blossomed into incredible humans with their own amazing personalities and senses of humor and ideas.”

She’s promoting ‘The Gallerist’ & it’s about rich people hiding their art: “I’m used to just going to a museum or a gallery and seeing art and enjoying it, and that’s the transaction. To understand that there’s people who literally have hedge funds that essentially turn these pieces from someone’s soul into a bar of gold that can be traded and stored and hidden away—and no one sees it, and then no one experiences it, no one interacts with it—emotionally was really wild.”

Portman comes by her own love of art honestly. “My mom is a fine artist,” she explains. “She took me to see art a lot as a kid. Actually, I made my first movie, The Professional, here, and she used to take me every weekend when I was shooting to go see art. I remember one of my favorite things was going to the Rodin Museum with her. Then she got clay and we would come home and do sculptures afterward.”

Her parents made sure her image was modest as a kid: “I think there was a conscious effort, because I was depicted as this sexualized Lolita, that I wanted to be like, ‘No, I’m serious, I’m a good girl, I’m a prude, I’m smart, I’m a student,’ emphasizing that as almost a safety mechanism.”

She’s done a lot of serious dramas in the past decade: “But then, over time, it became like everyone thinks I’m really serious. I’m very silly, and I love to laugh more than anything, and I love to goof off. People always think I’m a perfectionist, I think, because of Black Swan. I’m the opposite. I’m forgiving with myself. In college, we had a phrase: ‘Done, not good.’ ”

This current phase of her career. “Right now, it’s a lot of joy. I think it’s both for myself and what I hope to offer an audience, because it just feels … I mean, every time has dark moments, but it feels like there’s a lot of really heavy stuff going on. It’s just ever-present in our face, and so it does feel like the biggest service you can do right now as an artist is to deliver some joy.”

People relate to her differently because she’s petite: “I mean, I’m 45. I’m fully nowhere near being a child anymore. Just being small, I think a lot of people relate to you differently. I think that that compounds the issue too when you have been a kid actor.”

A simple person: “I’m a very simple person. I just want a word game, a cooking-competition show, a good meal, and I’m happy.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

Bazaar asked her a general question about her baby-father Tanguy and Natalie just said vague words about how love is important. Bazaar also mentioned the Rachel Cusk novel which is apparently about Natalie, but Natalie did not address it whatsoever – she really gave that whole issue the silent treatment, and good for her. That was the way to handle it. Anyway, Natalie sounds fine here. She sounds like a grown-up who is mature enough to talk about her life without giving away too much of anything. I hope she’s doing well.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.