Natalie Portman says "very much" regrets signing a petition supporting Roman Polanski.
The film-maker pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, and served 42 days in prison, but fled the US on the day of sentencing. He has been living in self-imposed exile since. In 2009, Portman joined a number of celebrities to sign a petition demanding that the director be freed from Swiss custody.
"I very much regret it. I take responsibility for not thinking about it enough," she told Buzzfeed. "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," she continued. "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 Oscar-winning actress was also asked about Woody Allen and whether or not she thinks it's "Time's Up" for him and his career - in light of Dylan Farrow's long-standing claim that he molested her when she was seven. He has consistently denied the allegation and was also never found guilty of child sex abuse.
Portman says that the conversation shouldn't be about whether Allen should continue making films and the loss thereof, but how much women have lost by not being given the same opportunities as men.
"I don't think that's what the conversation should be about," Portman said. "I think it should be about: Why didn't Elaine May make a movie every year? Why didn't Nora Ephron make a movie every year? Where's the female version of Bill Cosby? Why don't we see any Asian women in films? There's so much art that's being lost by not giving opportunities to women and people of colour. Let's not talk about what man's career is over.
"Let's talk about the vast art trove we've lost by not giving women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community opportunities — let's talk about that loss for all of us in art," she added. "Let's talk about that huge hole in our culture. I don't want talk about 'Isn't it sad that this person who's made 500 movies can't make movies anymore?' That's not for me to decide. And it's also not what I'm upset about."