Natalie Portman's Speech to Harvard Students: 'I Got in Only Because I was Famous'
by Shannon Keirnan
But the striking "Thor" actress admitted to Harvard seniors during her Class Day address that she suffered from the same insecurities as the rest of us.
The Oscar winner enrolled in Harvard following the release of "Star Wars: Episode 1."
"Today I feel much like I did when I came to Harvard Yard as a freshman in 1999," she told graduating students. "I felt like there had been some mistake, that I wasn't smart enough to be in this company, and that every time I opened my mouth I would have to prove that I wasn't just a dumb actress."
She adds that she felt like she wouldn't be able to keep up with the "intellectual rigor" of her classes.
"I only got in because I was famous. This was how others saw me, it was how I saw myself... sometimes your insecurities and your inexperience may lead you, too, to embrace other people's expectations, standards or values. But you can harness that inexperience to carve out your own path, one that is free of the burden of knowing how things are supposed to be, a path that is defined by its own particular set of reasons."
Of course, Portman proved herself quite intelligent despite her concerns, graduating with a degree in psychology.
Former Harvard psychology professor and former dean of social sciences Stephen Kosslyn recalls, "It was very clear when she was a student that she is a very determined person and capable of focused effort over a sustained period. She is now demonstrating the results of that determination and focus."
Her mentor at the college, Abigail Baird, has also said, "I've taught at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Vassar, and I've had the privilege of teaching a lot of very bright kids. There are very few who are inherently as bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn't take a single thing for granted."
Fine. They're not like us at all. Especially Natalie Portman.