Natalie Portman has firmly disputed dating claims from musician Moby, who said in his recently released autobiography Then It Fell Apart that he "tried to be her boyfriend" after she flirted with him in a dressing room. At the time, Moby alleged, she was 20 and he was 33. Per Moby, Portman ultimately ended things when she met someone else.
However, Portman remembers this run of events in a much less flattering light for Moby. Speaking with Harpar's Bazaar UK Tuesday about a number of topics ranging from the #MeToo movement to her documentary-inspired conversion to veganism, the Lucy in the Sky star called Moby "creepy" and said her reasons for ending their friendship were rooted in what she characterized as Moby's "inappropriate" interest in her.
"I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school," Portman said, adding that she "had just turned 18" at the time, not 20. Portman also slammed the book’s publisher, noting that she feels this alleged mischaracterization was intentional.
"That he used this story to sell his book was very disturbing to me," she said. "It wasn't the case. There are many factual errors and inventions. I would have liked him or his publisher to reach out to fact check." By Portman's account, she was a fan of Moby’s music and had just graduated when they first met after one of his shows. That night, Moby told her they should be friends. At the time, she was busy with a film shoot and he was in the middle of a tour, leading to them hanging out only "a handful of times" before she decided to put a stop to it.
Early Wednesday, Moby took to Instagram to double down, citing photo evidence and noting that he respects Portman's "intelligence and activism."
Also tucked into Moby's book, for some reason, is a dating claim regarding Lana Del Rey circa the mid '00s. Known at the time as Lizzy Grant, Moby referred to Lana as a "beautiful elf" with whom he shared a first date at a vegan macrobiotic restaurant. Lana has not responded to these claims.
