Natalie Portman opens up about being 'sexualized as a child' in early movie roles

Natalie Portman opened up about the impact of being "sexualized as a child" in her early movie roles.

The 39-year-old Oscar winner appeared on fellow actor Dax Shepherd's The Armchair Expert podcast on Monday (December 7), where she spoke about how these roles affected her own sexuality.

"I was definitely aware of the fact that I was being portrayed… as this 'Lolita' figure," she told Dax Shepard.

Portman also revealed that in 1997, she turned down the chance to play Lolita in a film adaptation of the 1955 book written by Vladimir Nabokov. The film centers around a middle-aged man who engages in a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl.

This is what Natalie Portman had to say about Harvey Weinstein:

"Being sexualized as a child, I think took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid and it made me like the way I could be safe was to be like, 'I’m conservative,' and 'I’m serious and you should respect me,' and 'I'm smart,' and 'don’t look at me that way.'"

Portman continued, "Whereas at that age, you do have your own sexuality and you do have your own desire, and you do want to explore things and you do want to be open.

"But you don’t feel safe, necessarily, when there are older men that are interested, and you’re like, 'No, no, no, no.' "

The actress also explained that she put "fortresses" in place in order to protect herself from unwanted attention as a young girl in show business.

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"So many people had this impression of me that I was super serious and conservative... and I realized I consciously cultivated that because it was always to make me feel safe," she said. "Like, 'Oh, if someone respects you, they're not gonna objectify you.'"

"When I was in my teens I was like, 'I don't wanna have any love scenes or make-out scenes,'" Portman recalled. "I would start choosing parts that were less sexy because it made me worried about the way I was perceived and how safe I felt."

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This comes two years after the actress told PEOPLE: "I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually I would feel unsafe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort."