Natalie Portman - Garden State
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

I have been a fan of Natalie Portman’s since her first major role in Luc Besson’s Léon. Since then she has become one of America’s brightest and critically acclaimed young stars with films such as Beautiful Girls, Anywhere But Here and her most famous role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequels.

Her latest is Sam in the directorial debut of Scrubs star Zach Braff’s film, Garden State. When Andrew Largeman [Braff] returns to his hometown for his mother’s funeral, he reconnects with old friends, and since he’s gone off his depression medication, himself. A chance meeting with Sam [Portman], who also suffering from various maladies, opens his world to the possibility of rekindling emotional attachments, confronting his psychologist father, and perhaps beginning a new life.

Check out the Garden State website

Daniel Robert Epstein: Did the fact that you are Jewish help you relate to Zach’s movie and his experiences more?

Natalie Portman: Yeah, I guess so. It was funny to say something like “You're Jewish.” He says that he wrote the part for me but that’s evidence that he didn’t [laughs].

DRE: What did you like about the part?

NP: I just thought it was such a fun character. It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever gotten to do before. Getting to let it all hang out is pretty fun.

My sole criteria for movies is getting to do something I haven’t done before. In Hollywood when they see you do one thing they send you like 40 scripts where they want you to do the same thing. That’s why you always see people in similar roles.

DRE: You could easily fall into that cookie cutter starring roles. Do you purposely look for roles that go against that?

NP: It’s weird because I don’t see myself fitting into that either. I can’t ever believe that anyone would believe me as the fashion executive who falls in love really cutely. I think I’m so much weirder than that. I don’t fit into those types.

DRE: Did you ever see yourself directing?

NP: That is something that definitely interests me especially since I’ve been in this business for over ten years now. That’s really weird to think about. It’s been 12 years in film. It definitely makes you feel confident that you know something and it’s looking for something new and interesting.

It definitely gives you more confidence once you see someone do it successfully. A lot of directors seem like they’re such odd people, that you’re thinking, “I don’t know if I could do that. I don’t know if I’m that obsessive.” Zach is just a regular guy. He’s very, very talented, but when you hang out with him he doesn’t seem like one of those crazy directors.

DRE: You’ve worked with many directors that people would consider visionaries. What was it like working with Zach who on his first film is getting a lot of critical accolades?

NP: It’s really exciting to see it all happen. It was easy to see that he is confident, smart, funny and new. That is all the pieces that go into being a great director but you never really know until you get there, even with the established directors. It has so much to do with how your styles mesh and the chemistry. It was such a wonderful experience, he did such a fine job and it really matched with how he described it to me before we first started.

DRE: Did you he give you a mix CD?

NP: He did. I couldn’t believe that he got all the music he wanted.

DRE: Your character had a lot of pets in this film. Did you get attached to any of them?

NP: No, unfortunately I didn’t get to spend much time with them. I had the weird and grossest prop in the history of movie making, the dead hamster prop. We didn’t get to work with the dogs as much as it may have seemed.

DRE: Most of people think of you as a dramatic actor. How big of a change was it to get to do something a little more romantic and comedic?

NP: It was fun. Zach created an atmosphere where we’re all just hanging out and laughing all the time. It was a great and fun experience as well as being meaningful afterwards.

DRE: Does being funny come easy to you?

NP: Yeah, I think I have this reputation for being really serious because when I do interviews, which is how people get to know you I guess, the more interesting things to talk about are serious. I do take myself seriously so I am trying to be a serious person and also be relaxed.

DRE: For Anywhere but Here, you wouldn’t originally do the role because it required nudity so they changed it. How do you feel now about doing nudity and those types of roles as you get older?

NP: Now I wouldn’t say no because I don’t want to limit myself. There might be a day when you change. It’s much better to see how things change and how you feel about them. I wouldn’t say I would never do it. I think it’s rare when nudity is necessary. I also try to value my private life over my acting life because if you do anything that in any way jeopardizes your privacy or safety then it’s not worth it.

DRE: What is an example of a film where you thought nudity was necessary?

NP: I can’t think of one off the top of my head. It is hard to think of Last Tango in Paris without nudity but I don’t necessarily love that film or want to be in it. That’s a film you couldn’t do without the nudity.

DRE: What do you think of the fact that you are considered a sex symbol?

NP: I don’t really think I’m a sex symbol. If I was then its just part of life and I hope that since our culture is so increasingly exterior, exterior, exterior, which is not necessarily bad, but as long as it is balanced with the interior. That’s what people do, we look around and get first impressions. But it’s also about the combination of soul mind and body. In our movie magazine culture it’s all pictures and no words. Like in life, you don’t want people around because of the shiny part but because of what’s underneath when you rub the shiny part off.

DRE: Any funny moments while making this film?

NP: The humping dog story.

There was the day when were shooting that pool scene and they chose this one house because of the view of the Manhattan skyline. The day we got there it was completely foggy but we had paid enormous sums of money for the shot so we shot. The entire crew was using one bathroom in someone’s house. When that happens the bathroom can get really nasty. She came to us and said “Shooting is over. There’s doody in the bathtub.” Zach had to deal with that while we were shooting.

DRE: Someone doodied in the bathtub?

NP: No, it was just that the pipes were all messed. But we were like “Doody? Who says doody?” We were completely unconcerned about the bathroom.

DRE: How much like Sam are you?

NP: I have her face, her voice and her body. There’s always a little bit of you in every character. Zach wrote her. She’s not me.

DRE: To a lot of kids out there you are Queen Amidala. How’s the end of your Star Wars experience been for you?

NP: It’s been really cool to be in kids’ movies. It’s been really awesome to be able to go and walk past a kid in the street and see that they’re like, “Hey!” and they’re smiling and excited. Before that it was all older men with The Professional and Beautiful Girls. Then it was teenage girls who like Anywhere But Here and Where the Heart Is. So to all of a sudden to see little kids who are really excited is pretty cool.

DRE: How was Episode III to shoot?

NP: It was very fun to film. We shot it in Australia last summer and it’s coming out next summer.

DRE: Can you talk about transitioning from huge films to small films with a first-time director?

NP: It was really fun to do an independent film because you just conserve your resources so you're more creative. There’s so much energy that gets lost on a big movie when you’re waiting two hours for a lighting setup. Miraculously, on a low-budget movie they can set up a shot in two seconds. There’s such a pace and energy. Everyone who is working on it is really young and really passionate because no one gets paid. They’re all there because they want to be and they can be, because they’re in their 20s and don’t need to feed a family. It’s just a group of young people going, “OK, we’ve got four weeks to finish this mission. We’re going to get there and we’re going to do it.’ There’s that energy.

DRE: How much did you relate to the suburban experience?

NP: I definitely feel it. There’s something that embodies what everyone’s feeling, because it’s close to where everything is happening, but not there. There’s a real feeling in these regions of comfort, where people are living in all this comfort. They’re not kagillionaires, but they pretty much have every opportunity open to them. As a young person, as spoiled and snotty as it sounds, it’s really scary to have every choice open to you. It’s hard when you feel that way because making one choice will eliminate all your other choices. You have to find a way to make a mark on the world and be unique and find yourself. It’s this real funny state of having everything and because of having everything sort of knowing nothing.

DRE: You were discovered in a pizza parlor. Do you remember anything of that big moment?

NP: A little bit. I was just a jerky little kid. I’d always walk around, seeing who was looking at me. I was such an obnoxious kid. So I was waiting for that moment. I wanted it so badly.

DRE: What one thing would you like an audience to walk away with from Garden State?

NP: I don’t know if there’s just one thing. I think the great thing about a good movie is that people are engaged with it in different ways. It’s like a conversation with the audience. Everyone will take something different from it. The main thing, I hope, is that people will be entertained by it. I think it’s entertaining. At the end I hope it’s not empty entertainment, not empty fun. There’s stuff that you can take away that’s deeper than just an enjoyable two hours.

DRE: We’ve talked about choices and angst. Can you relate?

NP: Absolutely. I’m the luckiest girl in the whole world. I have such a lucky life and it’s so wonderful. There’s something scary in that because there’s a sort of lack of direction or something. I always feel that when you have some sort of struggle it makes you stronger in your desires. When you come up against an obstacle it makes you stronger in knowing where you’re going. It’s hard to have identity and direction and purpose when it’s all easy. It’s not a unique thing for me. Everyone I grew up with comes from a pretty affluent background, gets to go to college and can be whatever they want to be. As unbelievable as that is it’s the snottiest thing in the world to complain about it in any way. It has its own hardness to it because it can be overwhelming. It can be like, “Oh, if I can do anything and I choose one thing, then I’m going to lose all these other options.’

DRE: So how do you handle it?

NP: Well, it’s hard. That’s one of the things that’s weird for me, personally. Most of my friends who left school went into the extreme discipline of a job that gives you 9 to 5 hours. I do work, but it’s for three months at a time. Then I’m like, “Aaah, I don’t know what I’m doing.’ So I’ve started taking classes, where I’m actually feeling productive and I’m learning something. So I’m learning Spanish right now and I’m taking ballet and working on producing things. I have all this time and I have all these options, so it’s pretty scary.

DRE: You’ve recently graduated from Harvard. Any sense that you should be doing something else besides acting?

NP: Acting is really fulfilling on a personal level. I don’t know how much it contributes to the world, although I think a world without movies and theater would be a sad one. I think there’s a definite need for entertainment and stories about people. As a person you practice empathy. That’s your job. You say, “I wonder what that person’s life is like?’ That’s a really cool way to look at the world, to try to understand what other people are feeling and think about how their lives must be. That sounds presumptuous, but at the same time it’s a pretty amazing thing to get to do over and over and over again, to train your brain to think, so you can look at people and say, “How is their life? What is their life like?’ It’s very different from all the self-centeredness that being a movie star is. They’re polar opposites, all outside of yourself and not thinking about other people, which is exciting.

DRE: Angelina Jolie has taken on personal projects outside of acting. If you took time during a hiatus from working what would you do?

NP: I’ve been working with an organization called FINCA for the past year, since I’ve been out of school and I’ve had a lot more time. They do mirco-finance for women, which is one incredible way to help the problem of world poverty. There are four billion people in the world that are living on less than three dollars a day, and the majority of them are women and children. That’s more than three-quarters of the world’s population. It’s unbelievable, I think. So I’ve been traveling with them. It gives women small loans so that they can start their own businesses and they’re so responsible. They pay back at a 97 percent rate, which is unheard of with wealthy American people who borrow money. They start businesses and all of a sudden they can feed their kids and educate their kids. And it’s sustainable because they pay back the loans and grow the businesses. It’s a really wonderful, wonderful thing.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Natalie+Portman+-+Garden+State/