Natalie Portman thinks women’s sports is in the midst of a “positive culture shift”.
The Oscar-winning actress – who is a co-owner of Angel City Football Club alongside the likes of Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria, Gabrielle Union, and Jennifer Garner – has revealed what convinced her to throw her support behind the soccer team.
The 42-year-old actress – who has son Aleph and daughter Amalia with Benjamin Millepied – told PEOPLE: “When I saw my son watching the Women’s World Cup with as much enthusiasm and passion as he did the Men’s World Cup, and it made me think what an enormously positive culture shift it would be if the next generation looked up to women’s athletes the way they look up to male athletes.”
Natalie has already found her involvement with the team to be “incredibly rewarding”.
The actress shared: “I never thought I would be involved in a professional sports team. But co-founding Angel City Football Club has been one of the great joys of my life.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding professionally and personally. It’s really amazing when you hear kids saying that their Christen Press jersey is just as important as their LeBron James jersey.”
Earlier this year, Natalie argued that female athletes deserve more recognition.
The actress’ team play in the National Women’s Soccer League in the US, and she believes female athletes should be more celebrated than they currently are.
She told PEOPLE: “I think that for all kids, it’s so influential to see female athletes be celebrated as they deserve. I mean, we grew up as girls being expected to idolise male athletes, and we did.
“If you see excellence, you can be in awe of it no matter who is being excellent. So, I think that for all our kids, it really gives me tingles thinking about how different their world will be growing up with icons we have on our team.”
