Natalie Portman Notes Decline Of Film As A Primary Form Of Entertainment: “It Feels Much More Niche Now”

If it’s the end of the film industry as we know it, Natalie Portman feels fine.

In a Vanity Fair interview, Portman said she is thankful that cinema is shifting among younger viewers.

“The striking thing has been the decline of film as a primary form of entertainment. It feels much more niche now,” Portman said. “If you ask someone my kids’ age about movie stars, they don’t know anyone compared to YouTube stars, or whatever.”

She continued, “There’s a liberation to it, in having your art not be a popular art. You can really explore what’s interesting to you. It becomes much more about passion than about commerce. And interesting, too, to beware of it becoming something elitist. I think all of these art forms, when they become less popularized, you have to start being like, OK, who are we making this for anymore?”

Portman said Hollywood is now a “two-sided coin.”

“[It’s] amazing, too, because there’s also been this democratization of creativity, where gatekeepers have been demoted and everyone can make things and incredible talents come up,” she said. “And the accessibility is incredible. If you lived in a small town, you might not have been able to access great art cinema when I was growing up. Now it feels like if you’ve got an internet connection, you can get access to anything. It’s pretty wild that you also feel like at the same time, more people than ever might see your weird art film because of his extraordinary access. So it’s this two-sided coin.”