Natalie Portman working to build better future for kids Aleph and Amalia

Actress Natalie Portman is working to build a better future for her son Aleph and daughter Amalia.

The Oscar-winning actress says it was her children who motivated her to get involved in creating real social change, reports etonline.com.

"Well, I want a different world for both my kids," Portman said when asked about her support for the Time's Up and MeToo movements.

"I have a girl and a boy, and I want both of them to grow up with different ideas of opportunity, of behaviour, of the options opened to them because both boys and girls are limited by a system that expects very specific things from boys and from girls. Everyone's options are limited because of this."

The 37-year-old actress also explained how her definition of "abuse" has evolved over the years.

"It was amazing how many things that I didn't even categorise as abusive behaviour," she said.

"I just thought it was (something that) made me really upset or made me uncomfortable. And now I think all of this reckoning has made me even be like, 'Oh that wasn't just a bad date, that was an abusive date', 'That wasn't just an uncomfortable meeting, that was an abusive meeting'... And has made me look at things differently and hopefully, it'll prevent this kind of behaviour when people are, men and women, are more aware of that."