Natalie Portman is fini with Los Angeles as she enjoys her under-the-radar life in Paris with her two children.
“They’re very good at privacy here,” Portman, who just went through a public divorce with French choreographer Benjamin Millepied, told Net-a-Porter this week. “I feel like the biggest compliment is ‘elle est très discrète’ [‘she is very discreet’].”
The “Black Swan” star recently moved back to Paris before her divorce, and decided to stay to raise their two children, Aleph, 13, and Amalia, 8, there.
“All the kids that come to my house are, like, ‘bonjour Madame’ – and give me the bise [cheek-to-cheek kiss],” she said. “And before they leave, they are, like, ‘thank you for having me’ – and if I’m not nearby, they’ll come and find me to say it.”
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The couple previously moved to Paris in 2014 after Millepied was hired as the director for the Paris Opera Ballet, but came back to Los Angeles in 2016.
At the time, she told Jimmy Kimmel after moving back to the States that everyone seemed really friendly in L.A. as opposed to France, where people are a bit “cool.”
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She explained to the comedian that there are a lot of “codes of behavior” compared to L.A., where it’s “looser.”
Portman told Net-a-Porter, “I think we have an assumption that Western cultures are all the same – and kind of evened out by all this pop culture that everyone consumes. It’s not true: it’s extremely specific here; and the culture is very different in both deep and surface ways.”
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She added, “I find the people here are actually incredibly friendly – you just have to know how to interact, so that we’re not the ones being rude. Now, when I go back to the U.S., I’m like, ‘Oh,’ I would go into a store and not say hello to everyone there? It’s weird.”
The New York native said she also enjoys soaking up all the culture the City of Light has to offer.
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“Even when it’s cold and gray, there’s always some incredible exhibit or concert or dinner party or writers in town; something fascinating and stimulating happening… and the frequent vacations are so clutch!” she said.
