Natalie Portman Apologizes To Jessica Simpson For Her Bikini Comment

Natalie Portman and Jessica Simpson just showed us all how valuable efficient communication can be any time it comes to hurt feelings and disagreements.


In a USA Today interview published on Tuesday (December 4), Portman said the real-life pop star while discussing her portrayal of a fictional pop star in her film, Vox Lux. The actress juxtaposed having felt "really lucky" to look up to Madonna as a child "because I saw someone who was brazen and disobedient and provocative and attempting to disaster with people and habitually changing," with later having seen Simpson "on the cover of a magazine saying ‘I’m a virgin’ while wearing a bikini."


In her teen brain, Portman mentioned, "I was confused. Like, I don’t know what this is attempting to tell me as a woman, as a girl."


Simpson, who broke into the music industry as a teen, was "disappointed" by the comments about her 1999 photo shoot, and took to Twitter to lament that "as public figures," she and Portman could both relate to the struggles of controlling their image.


"I was taught to be myself and honor the different ways all females express themselves, which is why I thought then — and I believe right now — that being sexy in a swim suit and being delighted of my body are not synonymous with having sex," Simpson wrote. "I have habitually embraced being a role model to all ladies to let them know that they can look nevertheless they want, wear whichever they want and have sex or not have sex with whomever they want. The power lies within us as individuals."


Simpson closed her strong statement by encouraging Portman "to not shame other girls for their choices," particularly in our current Time's Up climate — a cause that Portman herself is enthusiastic about.


Happily, Portman heard Simpson loud and clear, and issued an apology not long right after seeing that she was hurt. "I would never intend to shame anybody and that was absolutely not my intention," Portman told Entertainment Tonight. "I was really talking about mixed media messages out there for young ladies and totally apologize for any hurt it might have caused because that was certainly not my intention."


She then clarified that she was attempting to convey the mixed messaging she felt during her youth. "There are a lot of messages for how girls should be, and females should be allowed to do whichever they want," she recalled, yet acknowledged that she might have — and should have — made her point without calling out Simpson in particular. "It is a mistake to mention anyone's name."


This quick back-and-forth is an apt reminder that our words matter, and infusing them with compassion can be an easy way to spread positivity while combating negativity.