Natalie Portman Says Husband Benjamin Millepied Didn't Need Her Advice for His Directorial Debut (Exclusive)

Benjamin Millepied's movie Carmen, starring Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera, is in theaters now

Natalie Portman says her husband Benjamin Millepied did not need her help while making his new movie Carmen.

At the premiere of 41-year-old Portman's new HBO docuseries Angel City in Los Angeles Thursday, the Oscar winner tells PEOPLE that Millepied "knows what needs doing" when it comes to stepping behind the camera for his feature-length directorial debut.

Portman herself has directed before, making the short film Eve (2008) and the biographical drama A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015).

"He doesn't need to," she says, when asked whether she provided Millepied, 45, with any guidance for the movie. "He knows what needs doing."

Millepied, for his part, recently indicated that Portman's overall presence on sets with him in the past and as he filmed Carmen in Australia "informed a lot of things."

"Yeah, of course. Of course," Millepied previously told PEOPLE when asked whether Portman advised him on Carmen. "I think also being on set and hearing what ignites her creativity, [as] a director, was something that I had heard."

Related:Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied's Relationship Timeline

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Portman and Millepied first met when he worked as a choreographer on her 2010 movie Black Swan. They married in 2012 and have since welcomed son Aleph, 11, and daughter Amalia.

Carmen star Melissa Barrera previously told PEOPLE that the couple treated her like family while filming in Australia in 2021.

"I was by myself completely. So Ben and Natalie took me in and we went to Byron Bay for Christmas and New Year's. It was like a very family kind of thing," the Scream VI star, 32, shared of the experience. "It was the other side of the world. I can't — like the nicest people ever."

Related:Natalie Portman Says She's 'Definitely a Soccer Mom': My Son Is a 'Ferocious' Player (Exclusive)

The three-part docuseries Angel City covers the inception and first year of Los Angeles' professional women's soccer team Angel City Football Club, which Portman has a majority ownership stake in. The club began to play in the National Women's Soccer League in 2022, finishing in eighth place out of the league's 12 teams during its inaugural season.

Portman tells PEOPLE she was inspired by the U.S. women's national soccer team's gold medal-winning 2019 Women's World Cup performance while they simultaneously fought "for pay equity alongside their incredible game."

"And I saw my son looking up to the female athletes the same way that he looked up to his male heroes, and I was like, 'Wow, this is really culture shifting,' " Portman says. "And you can amplify female athletes because sports is so central about culture."

Angel City debuts on HBO May 16 and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

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