Los Angeles, April 16 (IANS) Hollywood actress Natalie Portman has opened up on how she guarded herself while feeling sexualized as a young star in Hollywood.

The Oscar-winning actress, 43, made her big screen debut in the R-rated 1994 film ‘Leon: The Professional’, which she began filming when she was 12 years old, reports ‘People’ magazine.

Portman, who has previously been open about navigating her teen years in the industry, spoke to Jenna Ortega about it in a new ‘Interview’ magazine conversation.

She said, "I think there’s a public understanding of me that’s different from who I am. I’ve talked about it a little before, about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me”.

As per ‘People’, the ‘Fountain of Youth’ actress Portman, who stars opposite Ortega, 22, in the upcoming movie ‘The Gallerist’, said her "way of protecting myself" at the time was to portray herself as "so serious. I’m so studious. I’m smart, and that’s not the kind of girl you attack”.

"I was like, if I create this image of myself, I’ll be left alone”, she said. "It shouldn’t be a thing, but it worked”.

Ortega, who's also been acting from a young age, told Portman she feels a "kinship" with other former child actors, "As soon as someone mentions that they were a young actor, you start to look at them differently”.

The ‘Wednesday’ star also said during the Interview discussion that "there’s something really, really heartwarming but also simultaneously devastating anytime I speak to actresses from previous generations, just because their experience is so jarringly different”.

She added, "It’s nice to see how much it’s changed because I’ve been very fortunate in my upbringing, in our line of work”.