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Geschrieben von Aleph am 12. November 2000 19:05:16:
Als Antwort auf: »Retiring, at 19 - Natalie Portman on giving up films« geschrieben von Aleph am 12. November 2000 18:34:33:
...von der offiziellen Homepage der Sunday Times:
The Phantom Menace made Natalie Portman a household name. But the 19-year-old hailed as the new Audrey Hepburn prefers Harvard to Hollywood and might give up acting for clinical psychology, she tells DAVID EIMER
THE SHRINKING STAR
It's six years since she made a precocious debut opposite Gary Oldman and Jean Reno in Leon, and only nine years since she was first spotted in a Long Island pizza parlour. Her credentials as a serious actress were confirmed by a successful stint on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank, in 1998, and thanks to her role as Queen Amidala in the continuing trilogy of Star Wars prequels, she's now a global name. And Natalie Portman is still only 19.
The only problem is that she seems to regard acting as little more than an amusing and lucrative hobby that may or may not last. "I still don't know if acting is what I want to do for ever," she confirms. "There are so many other things that I think it would be limiting to say, 'This is it for me.' I still love acting, but I can totally see myself exploring other careers later."
It's not as if she's short of options. Currently majoring in psychology at Harvard, she's also fluent in French, Hebrew and Japanese. As she sits demurely in a Beverly Hills hotel suite, in jeans and a white shirt, it's easy to understand why she has a reputation for bowling over her directors and co-stars with her mind. She's slight and looks younger than 19 - and her speech is peppered with teenisms, the ubiquitous "like" to the fore - but she's articulate beyond her years and is a singular presence in a Hollywood that's currently overcrowded with brash, just-out-of-high-school would-be stars.
Despite the frequent comparisons to the young Audrey Hepburn, she lacks her outrageous good looks, but she does project the same serene, otherwordly quality. It's an attribute that's on display in her latest film, Where the Heart Is, a whimsical slice of middle Americana that sees her go from trailer-trash hell to white-picket-fence heaven.
Saddled with a name, Novalee Nation, that sounds like an obscure Indian reservation, Portman's character goes through the mill to an almost absurd extent. After leaving her Tennessee trailer to travel to a new life in California, the heavily pregnant, 17-year-old Novalee is abandoned in the middle of Oklahoma by her boyfriend. With no money, Novalee hides out in the local Wal-Mart, gives birth there and so becomes an instant celebrity, before deciding to make the small town she's in her new home and finding true love with a shy local librarian.
Novalee's existence is a long way from Portman's background as a model student growing up in the up-market suburb of home, New York, and it's a tribute to her skill as an actress that she remains vaguely credible. Unlike most young actors, she knows that less is more, and she turns in a typically understated and closely observed performance. But with The Jerry Springer Show on television every day, she didn't have to look too far for insights into the white-trash lifestyle.
"Actually, I did watch a lot of it," she giggles. "But when we went into the trailer parks, it was much more diverse. People there do dress normally - I mean, not everyone, but they dress like you and me and they talk like you and me, they're just born into a different class. I think the story shows how there is a wide range of people in those areas. It might start out almost like a caricature, but you realise that these people have feelings and thoughts and are products of their environment and are not just a different form of human being."
That Portman herself is the product of a rarefied upbringing becomes obvious the longer you speak to her. Born in Jerusalem to an Israeli doctor and his artist wife, she came to America when she was three and has remained extremely close to her parents, who, in turn, have been very protective of their daughter. She was with them when she was approached by a Revlon scout in the pizza parlour, but decided against modelling and instead acquired an agent and started acting at an exclusive summer camp.
She began her film career at the top, playing the waif who's adopted by a professional hitman (Jean Reno) in Leon. The director Luc Besson coaxed a provocative performance in dubious taste out of the then 12-year-old, but Portman has since steered well clear of controversial material. She turned down the Christina Ricci part in The Ice Storm as "too dark", as well as the title role in Adrian Lyne's Lolita, a film that she predicted would be "sleaze". Last year, she agreed to play opposite Susan Sarandon in Anywhere But Here only after a sex scene was cut from the script.
Portman says she's the one who makes the decisions about what she does. "I've always chosen my projects myself. My parents have kind of given me their opinion and advice about things, but ultimately it's always been my choice," she insists. She admits, though, that she wouldn't take a role if she thought it would disturb them. "I probably wouldn't, because it's more important to me to make my parents happy and proud. If I were to offend them, I'd be more upset than at missing out on some stupid movie."
In any case, she seems to share her mum and dad's tastes and is quick to jump to their defence. "I think I'm very similar to my parents; I think most kids are," claims Portman. "They're not as conservative as many people have depicted them. They've just tried to protect me from any sort of an image at a young age that would be harmful to myself by people getting strange ideas and that kind of stuff."
Part of the plan for warding off potential stalkers was the decision to adopt her maternal grandmother's surname as a stage name. Her efforts to keep her choice of college a secret have been less successful, and even though everyone knows it's Harvard, she still refuses to say its name. "I don't want to have visitors, to be completely blunt. All I've heard is that when Brooke Shields was at Princeton, she had hundreds of visitors a year. I don't want that. I don't want to hang out with people I don't know. Some people may find that rude, because fans immediately think that, you know, they can be your friend, and that's not the relationship I want to have."
There are many more of those admirers since Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but Portman seems unimpressed by the dramatic course of her short career. "I don't really see Star Wars as a bigger deal than Leon. I just see it as another film, another experience and event in my life. I feel lucky for everything I've had, but I don't go, 'Wow, I can't believe I made it this far.' It just seems like the progression of my life," she states blandly.
Even if her fans could get close to her, they probably wouldn't have too much in common with her. Portman is the archetypal overachiever, and likes being with similar types, which is why she's enjoying Harvard so much. "Everyone I'm around, they're the most amazing people. I mean, just the people in my dorm: the guy upstairs has played cello with Yo-Yo Ma, there's a girl who's a published poet, I know a few people who went to the Olympics," she gushes.
"They're not Joe Schmo on the street, and I'm not saying Joe Schmo is, like, any worse, I just think Joe Schmo's more susceptible to either be intimidated by me or to admire me. These kids are all accomplished, and they're interested in my life, but I'm as interested in theirs and it's not like, 'Oh my God, you're a movie star.'"
She is a serious, sensible girl, and still shy enough to blush at the mention of boyfriends. It's rumoured that she's seeing Hayden Christensen, the unknown Canadian actor who plays Anakin Skywalker in the next Star Wars instalment, but Portman isn't exactly a raver in her spare time. "I'm pretty normal. I go out, I party, I go to movies, I hang with my friends. My friend and I are going to work for this elderly gentleman in our town; we're going to help organise his books, so that should be fun."
How much longer we'll continue to see her on screen is uncertain. She sounds far more animated talking about a career in clinical psychology than she does discussing acting, although she's realistic enough to know that she's rapidly approaching the point where her fame may prevent her from taking up a "normal" job in the future. "It would be difficult because of my former life as an actress," she concedes, "but I could do research."
More frustrating is the fact that her commitment to college and Star Wars means that one of the finest young actresses around will spend the next two years solely spouting George Lucas's cheesy and clunky dialogue. Portman, though, isn't complaining. "I haven't read another script for, like, a year and a half," she grins. "Which is really fun." For her, not for us.
* Where the Heart Is opens on Nov 17
* www.natalieportman.com
Check her biorhythms and favourite everything
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Aleph