Natalie Portman opens up about college troubles in Harvard speech

Harvard graduate and Oscar winner Natalie Portman returned to Cambridge this year to speak at commencement, and she used the opportunity to get candid about the difficulties she faced when she first arrived at the school. “It’s easy to romanticize my time here, but I had some difficult times. Being 19, dealing with my first heartbreak, taking birth control that’s now off the market due to its depressive side effects,” Portman revealed during her speech.

And then there was the whole being in “Star Wars” thing: “When I got to Harvard just after the release of ‘Star Wars: Episode I,’ I feared people would assume I had gotten in just for being famous, and not worthy of the intellectual rigor here,” she said, adding that she was desperate to prove she “wasn’t a dumb actress.” Here’s the speech in its entirety:

Look, I know she’s trying to be inspiring and all, but seriously, if beautiful, famous and intelligent Natalie Portman can’t make it through undergrad unscathed, what hope is there for us mere mortals?

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