Natalie Portman: 'No one would make Leon today'

Natalie Portman is convinced her breakout movie Leon: The Professional would never get made today.

The Oscar-winning actress was 13 when she landed the lead role in Luc Besson's 1994 action thriller, with the film also starring Jean Reno and Gary Oldman.

But while Natalie had a blast playing a protegee of an assassin on set, she's not sure the idea of an ultra-violent movie based around a teenager would get greenlit in 2019.

"I appreciate it when something connects with an audience," she said in an interview with Empire. "It also gave me my career on a platter and was a 100 per cent a positive experience. I loved doing it. But you watch and it's largely inappropriate.

"There's a lot of stuff in there that's not amazing through today's eyes. I think because people are still connected to it and care about it and I personally did not have anything but positive feelings, I still feel more on the proud side. Even though I totally understand, I don't know how I'd show that to my kids."

Natalie and her ballet choreographer husband Benjamin Millepied are parents to seven-year-old son Aleph and two-year-old daughter Amalia.

And while the star has achieved mainstream success for her performances as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequel films and features like Closer, Garden State, The Other Boleyn Girl, Black Swan and Jacqueline Kennedy biopic Jackie, she is adamant that Leon: The Professional is the flick that fans ask her the most questions about.

"It's still the thing people come up to me the most on the street, even more than Star Wars or Black Swan," the 37-year-old insisted.