January 3, 2024
The IAA Munich Motor Show has invited a very special guest in 2023 – coming especially from Paris. Actress and director Natalie Portman, known for the classic “Léon – The Professional” and as Princess Padmé in “Star Wars”. The actress has been a climate activist and vegan for over a decade. She shared her personal experience with mobility, comparing her time in New York, Los Angeles and Paris.
It's not easy for car manufacturers right now. In the run-up to the IAA, one of the biggest car shows in the world, climate activists have made numerous accusations against the car industry, including “neocolonial exploitation”. The radical environmental protection movement Extinction Rebellion said: “In light of the climate crisis, holding an advertising event for car companies in Munich is pure mockery.”
Even in more moderate terms, the climate crisis and rising energy costs are not necessarily good for the industry's image. But how does Europe's biggest motor show, the IAA in Munich, deal with this? Exhibitors mainly focused on their activities in the field of electric mobility, and the fair itself set an example by inviting Natalie Portman as a keynote speaker. The actress has been vegetarian since she was nine years old and has been eating vegan since 2011. The change came after reading the book Eating Animals (2009), by Jonathan Safran Foer. Together with Safran Foer she also produced a documentary about the book. Portman regularly uses public platforms to speak out about veganism and animal rights. During a speech to 16,000 students in Los Angeles, she said, “It wasn’t until I started working for equality that I realized veganism was about these same issues.”
The Munich IAA invited Natalie Portman, known for her reputation as a climate activist. Not a bad move, at least in theory.
She spoke about the pressure that manufacturers can put on consumers and said that ten years ago she couldn't find a luxury car without a leather interior. She also spoke on stage with Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen, and Sandra Wolf, boss of bicycle manufacturer Riese & Müller, about her personal mobility: she walks a lot herself, now that she lives in Paris. For other routes within Europe she takes the train. “The railway network in Europe is fantastic”, says the American. The actress, who was born in Jerusalem and grew up on Long Island, New York, used public transportation as a teenager. However, when she moved to Los Angeles, she had to switch to directing.
Natalie Portman is rehearsing and smiles.
As much as Portman shines as a personality, the actress sometimes seemed out of place during her tour of the fair. In summer espadrilles and her convictions about sustainability, she had more in common with the last generation of protesters outside the IAA gates. So maybe Portman wouldn't be so out of place, being the most prominent speaker at the world's biggest auto show?
This year, the IAA attracted 750 exhibitors from 38 countries, more than 500,000 visitors and more than 3,700 journalists from 82 countries. “The images from Munich document that we are determined that Germany will remain a car country in the future – a car country in the interests of climate, people and prosperity,” said VDA President Hildegard Müller.
Sofia Schimansky,
Deputy Editor-in-Chief