The Shins – Garden State “You gotta hear this one song, it’ll change your life I swear.” Radiating the kind of giddy flirtatious energy that would come to define the manic pixie dream girl trope, Natalie Portman glides across the waiting room & puts headphones over Zach Braff’s ears.
Portman says, “I was very lucky that what I was cast in wasn’t anything deliberate—serious adult fare and not child-appropriate things. But I feel like I totally ended up in female tropes, like Lolita. And clearly I was part of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl coining. I find it very upsetting to be part of that.”
It’s that Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and more what it represents, that really upsets the actress.
In recent months, Portman has made herself one of the most vocal women in the Time’s Up movement and been very supportive of #MeToo. So it’s obvious why she sees the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope as a bit problematic.
Listen to The Garden State Soundtrack here
All music is from the motion picture featuring Natalie Portman and Zach Braff.