Natalie and Dakota's Bloody Wrists Roles
Think about the child actresses who became grounded, successful adult stars. Bright, talented Natalie Portman has to be near the top of that list, right? But as an interview Natalie did last year proved, even the most well turned-out child actresses aren't without their share of problems. It's how they handle those problems that separates the victims from the survivors.
Natalie admitted that playing a girl who kills herself in the 1995 gangster movie Heat had an intense effect on her, resulting in her harming herself after an argument with her mother. "Just as what you are feeling in your life affects your acting, what you act in definitely affects what you are feeling in your life," she told Los Angeles Times.
"I made Heat when I was 14 and played a girl who died. A year later, I got into a fight with my mother and cut myself. I had never done it before and I never did it after that, but I think having my wrists bloody in a movie definitely affected my psyche."
Natalie also revealed that acting has always scared her, as she is constantly worrying that people won't find her performances believable. She hopes to direct films in the future, but the prospect is equally terrifying. "I really love directing. Fear is intrinsic to everything you do as a creative person. You're constantly putting yourself up there to be trashed. If I thought about it too much, I'd just be crippled. I'd rather create."
You might think there aren't any other child actresses who have had their wrists bloody for a role. But if you're like me, when you read this, your mind immediately went to Dakota Fanning in the 2005 thriller Hide and Seek. After her mother's death, Dakota's Emily exhibits increasingly disturbing behavior, including talking about her death in detail ("She slit her wrists with a razor and drowned in the bathtub," just as Natalie's character did in Heat) and painting her wrists red in a scene that was later deleted from the film.
Well-intentioned worrying aside, I don't think filming said scene will have any adverse effects on Dakota. (Although I do think it was tasteless and a good example of shallow shock value; no wonder it got deleted.) If Dakota can age as well as Natalie did, and it looks like she will, she'll end up better than most child actresses do.
Left: Natalie Portman getting dragged out of a bathtub full of blood in Heat (1995). Right: Dakota Fanning painting her wrists red for a deleted scene in Hide and Seek (2005).