Film star Natalie Portman called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “racist” and said she was “very upset” when he was re-elected.

The Oscar-winning actress made in the comments during an interview with Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles yesterday.

She said: “I'm very much against Netanyahu. Against. I am very, very upset and disappointed that he was re-elected. I find his racist comments horrific. However, what I want to make sure is I don't use my platform [the wrong way]. I feel like there're some people who become prominent, and then it's out in the foreign press. You know, shit on Israel. I do not. I don't want to do that."

Commenting on former Dior designer John Galliano’s antisemitic rant she said: "I don't see why not to be forgiving to someone who is… trying to change.”

Ms Portman had just landed in the US from London where she has been working on her adaptation of Israeli author Amos Oz’s memoir ‘A Tale of Love and Darkness’, which will be her directorial debut.

The 33-year-old actress recently moved to Paris with her French husband Benjamin Millepied and their son Aleph.

She admitted she felt nervous about being Jewish and living in a country where antisemitism is on the rise, "but I'd feel nervous being a black man in this country. I'd feel nervous being a Muslim in many places,” she said.