FORCEFUL WORDS

Portman Worried She Wasn't 'Smart Enough' For Harvard

Worried she wasn't up to the challenge.

Natalie Portman, in a commencement speech at Harvard earlier this week, said when she enrolled at the prestigious university in 1999, she worried she wasn't "smart enough" and everyone would see the "Phantom Menace" star as a "dumb actress." She told the graduating class of 2015 that many times, she questioned her own worthiness, doubted her ability as a student and as an actress, and suffered through dark times. But she also encouraged the recent grads to embrace the fearlessness of youth. "Make use of the fact that you don't doubt yourself too much right now," she said. "As we get older, we get more realistic and that includes about our own abilities or lack thereof. That realism does us no favors."