Natalie Portman admitted recently that she regrets signing a 2009 petition in support of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. The petition sprung up after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland and faced possible extradition to the United States.
Portman expressed, “I very much regret it. I take responsibility for not thinking about it enough. Someone I respected gave it to me, and said, ‘I signed this. Will you too?’ And I was like, sure. It was a mistake. The thing I feel like I gained from it is empathy towards people who have made mistakes. We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live. My eyes were not open.”
The petition was also signed by filmmaker Sam Mendes, actor Jeremy Irons, and actress Isabelle Adjanias well. However, Portman is one of the first stars to publicly apologize for it.
