PHOTOGRAPHY��MARK�ABRAHAMS/MAOSYNDICATION�COM��REX�FEATURES
She’s the child star who
went to Harvard and says
getting married is the last
thing on her mind. Stylist
meets the one and only
Natalie Portman
WORDS: WILL LAWRENCE
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK ABRAHAMS
T
he chance to swap lives with
a beautiful Hollywood actress
sounds appealing. For about a
minute… Then you factor in the
paparazzi, relentless speculation
about your love life and the probability that life
in the celebrity bubble leaves little time for travel,
education or a private life and suddenly it loses
its sparkle. And then you meet Natalie Portman
– successful and a highly respected actor who,
despite a career that spans 15 years (she was
just 13 when she appeared in Léon), has managed
to buck the trend.
The 28 year old’s varied CV incorporates the
likes of quirky comedy (Garden State), romantic
stories (My Blueberry Nights), comic book
blockbusters (V For Vendetta) and historical
drama (The Other Boleyn Girl). Despite her
position as a child star there’s not a single picture
of her sans underwear or whiff of a drug rumour.
The Jerusalem-born Jewish actress (although she
says her parents aren’t religious) even managed to
graduate from Harvard College with a degree in
psychology in 2003. In short, she has the potential
to make you feel ever so slightly inferior.
And when Stylist meets up with the actress on
a cold winter morning at Manhattan’s plush Four
Seasons hotel we’re certainly not underwhelmed.
We find her waiting quietly in a conference room,
her slender body wrapped in a black Lyell dress.
In the past, Portman has proved something of
a reluctant interviewee,
squirming at the usual
raft of personal
questions. Today
she seems much
more open.
“I am pretty much
myself in interviews,
although I’m probably
not talking to you the
way I would talk to a friend,” the actress admits.
“I guess I find interviews a bit uncomfortable,
because it’s such a one-way street. It is boring;
I prefer a two-way conversation.” Stylist suggests
that we’ll happily engage in a two-hander if
Portman has any pressing questions, and during
the course of our natter, she concedes that her
work makes relationships difficult, and admits
that she does, one day, want a family of her own.
“I guess that I’m growing up,” she smiles.
Certainly, in her latest movie, Brothers, she
projects a definite maturity, starring as Marine
wife Grace, who, upon hearing of the death of her
husband (Tobey Maguire) in Afghanistan, begins
falling in love with his reformed bad-boy brother
(Jake Gyllenhaal). Directed by Jim Sheridan
(In America), the film has already earned two
WITH JAKE GYLLENHAAL
IN THE EMOTIONALLY
CHARGED BROTHERS
NATALIE AGED 13
OPPOSITE FRENCH ACTOR
JEAN RENO IN LÉON
Golden Globe nominations. We caught up
with the actress to discuss her new role.
You play a mother again in this movie. Do you
find it easy to tap into your maternal instincts?
Where The Heart Is was probably the first time
I played a mum. Then I did in Star Wars, Cold
Mountain and in the Don Roos’ movie I just did
[Love And Other Impossible Pursuits]. In fact, in
The Other Boleyn Girl I’m pregnant so I’ve worn
the pregnancy pad quite a bit, you’re right! The
mum comes out very easily in me, though. I have
a very maternal mum of my own. She’s a very cosy,
nurturing type, and she is the most close up
model for that kind of behaviour that I’ve had.
“Privately, every actress I know is the
messiest, grubbiest person. We just want to be
in sweatpants with no make-up on at home”
I’ve not been a real mum, of course, but that
remains something I hope for one day.
You’ve got a number of films out this year.
Do you find the transient nature of your job
makes it difficult to enjoy a settled home life?
I am really busy right now, it’s true, and if you do
more than one film a year you are just going all
over the place. You are gone for three-month
stints and you don’t see your friends or family.
Relationships are impossible and it is definitely
something I am trying to figure out.
So how do you get more control in your life?
By having outlets like writing and producing,
which allows me to still have this creative outlet
but where I can be in just one place which is
NATALIE PORTMAN
really, really exciting. So right now I feel like
I’m going into my adulthood via a new way.
I am a total gypsy. I love being on the road but
at a certain point it is just that you can’t
really have a life.
Do you ever feel as though your position
as a style icon and role model puts extra
pressure on you?
Yes, a little. Not because I see myself as an icon
or anything but just that I know my job has a lot to
do with how I look. I was talking with a few actress
friends recently, and out of any girls we know,
we are the ones least wanting to get married.
Because everyone wants to have their big day,
when they wear a beautiful dress but we do that
once a week. We just want to be in sweatpants at
home, with no make-up on, and really plain, with
no one looking at us. Privately, every actress
I know is the messiest, grubbiest person, just
wearing crappy clothes all the time! It can make
you feel very ugly at home, too, when you are
always all made up then you wake up in the
morning and your hair is disgusting and your face
is disgusting. Suddenly, you’re like, “Shit. I’m so not
cute! I am only cute when I have all that help!”
You recently launched your own vegan-friendly
brand of shoes. How’s that coming along?
The company that makes them closed down
— nothing to do with my shoes, I hasten to add —
but I loved the experience. Part of my reason for
being vegetarian was because it practises respect
and love for life all through the day, so three times
a day you make a decision not to eat things that
have been killed. I have been vegetarian for 20
years but I recently became vegan and that has
more to do with the factory farming aspect, and
my friend’s book, Eating Animals [by author,
Jonathan Safran Foer] which is deeply disturbing.
When you were a teenager you said that you’d
never do nudity or sex scenes. Are you still
fiercely protective of what roles you take?
When I did the film Léon in my early teens, I was
so excited to get my
first fan mail but some
it was all about sex and
it really creeped me
out. I’m tougher than
that now. I am still
careful about all of it
because I don’t like
when you are doing
something as art and
then it gets exploited on a porn website. But it is
obviously such a part of life I think it should be
part of film. It’s kind of a tricky question. Right
now I’m coming to terms with it and I am doing my
half-nudity, making it believable but not showing
so much that they could use it on a porn site!
What’s next for you? We hear you’ve just
started work on Darren Aronofsky’s ballet
movie, Black Swan. How are your dancing skills?
Oh my God! I studied ballet as a child, when I was
13, and I definitely thought I was much better than
I am. And then doing rehearsals I realised I was
no way near as good as I thought. I thought
I was really advanced. It’s been so very hard.
Brothers is out 22 January nationwide
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