Portman’s ‘Eating Animals’ reveals horrors of factory farms
MOVIES
It’s not every film that prompts tears, the urge to vomit and even nightmares like “Eating Animals” does.
Co-produced and narrated by Oscar winner Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”), “Eating Animals” (opening Friday) asks, “Where does our food come from?”
It chronicles the abuses of gargantuan cow, chicken and pig factory farms, and highlights the tiny minority — just 1 percent — of farmers who raise animals the old-fashioned way.
Horrific scenes expose diseased cows being slaughtered for school lunch programs (prompting a massive recall), grossly distorted udders on dairy cows milked until they die and claustrophobic concrete chicken sheds, where genetically altered fowl can barely move, much less walk (on legs that bend but never snap).
When it comes to massive factory farming, “Eating” says the Department of Agriculture “guards the fox, rather than the hen.”
“It’s really shocking,” said Portman, 37, “because it is taking a stand for corporations against individual farmers.”
“Eating Animals” has been hailed as “an eyeopening reality check.”
Asked how people should respond to the film, the Harvard alum said, “I would hope that people care because of it. Care about how their food is being created and try to make changes.
“I don’t expect anyone to go vegan overnight. I think that’s a big thing to ask. But if people asked a little more where their food is coming from or ate a vegan meal one day a week, that would be enormous.”
“Eating Animals” is adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2009 book, which Portman optioned immediately.
Did this the book change her life?
“It definitely had a major impact on me. It changed the way I eat and live,” she said.
A vegan who doesn’t wear leather shoes, Portman is married to French ballet eminence Benjamin Millepied. They have two young children, and Portman is anything but dictatorial at home.
“My husband eats everything, and my kids get to choose when they can make those decisions,” she said.
In this polarized climate, does Portman ever worry she could jeopardize her career speaking out?
“Maybe I should. I don’t have the ability to shut myself up, unfortunately. To me, it feels like a duty to speak out against injustice.”
‘I don’t expect anyone to go vegan overnight. I think that’s a big thing to ask.’ — NATALIE PORTMAN co-producer of ‘Eating Animals’