Monday, August 1, 2005
V FOR VENDETTA'S NATALIE PORTMAN
Natalie Portman, star of V for Vendetta, talked to the press during Comic-Con International in San Diego recently.
Following is an edited transcription of a roundtable interview.
Question: In the clip that was shown, you were speaking with a British accent. Can you speak about that?
Portman: Yeah, I worked with a dialect coach for a month and a half before we started shooting and she was with me the whole time. We would do exercises for an hour every morning before we started. I was pretty comfortable with it by the time we shot, but it was definitely an extra thing to think about.
Question: What's your reaction to the fans?
Portman: They just seem really passionate about all the ... about this project, they seem really passionate about the comic book and the film coming out. They seem united in their passion. I've seen in other places for small things, things that unite people and find friendship in loving something together. It's a really nice community.
Question:Do you have anything that you're passionate about like that, other than your career?
Portman: I like music a lot. I would travel far to see a band I liked if I had time and the cash to do it. If I find myself in a position where I'm able to, I would to that.
Question: When you got the script and read that you had to shave your head, did you feel that you wanted to wear a skull cap or something? When did that first come up in conversations?
Portman: Actually, the first time I met Larry and James MacTigue in my audition for them -- because I had to audition for this -- they asked me, "Would you shave your head for this?" And I said, "Yeah. Why not?" Everyone else made such a bigger deal out of it than I felt. It's not that strange.
Question: From Luc Beeson to George Lucas, do you find there's a fundamental difference with European directors?
Portman: I think it's more of an individual difference, than a European/American difference. I've worked with a few non-Americans, but not all Europeans. I don't know, It's hard to make continental generalizations, but individual differences all over the place. It's very, very different how people will direct people. Some people, like Luc Beeson, like Larry Wachowski, will shout things out at you in the middle of the scene. Other directors will be completely silent. Woody Allen, I don't think, ever said a thing to me the whole time I worked with him. I don't think he knows I worked with him. (laughs). It is very individual difference, but I think it has to do with personalities.
Question:What do you think of the message of the movie?
Portman: I don't think there necessarily is a message. It's not a manipulative story that says this person is the good guy, you should fall in love with him, and this is the bad guy. You definitely have one who you can probably identify with morally, but he's heavily flawed and you can also criticize him morally. It's more of a provocative piece than a this-is-what-you-should-think-this piece and trying to make you think and make you criticize and make you object and find faults in someone's ideology or agree with parts of it. It's not black and white like that, and that's one of the reasons I really liked it because it made me have questions that I couldn't answer or had different answers to every five minutes. And it's continued to be that way for me.
Question: Did you see the script and the comic book at the same time?
Portman: No, I saw the script first.
Question: And what was it that caught you?
Portman: Well, the script is very faithful to the comic book. Obviously, it has to condense a lot of the subplots and stuff like that to make a film that you're not going to lose feeling in your legs sitting there watching.
But it is very faithful to the graphic novel and I think that that story of things that explore how we define violence are really interesting. We have many sort of variations for how we categorize violence. Was it intended or not? Is it state sanctioned or individually sanctioned? All of these things, we sort of make moral judgements based on these categorizations
and sometimes those categorizations are in the eyes of the beholder, which is why some people watching this will identify with the government and some people will idenitfy the revolutionaries. And that sort of openess and ambiguity, I thought, was interesting.
Question: Are you find strong material out there for women?
Portman: I don't know. I don't see many movies I find interesting at all, for women or men. And in terms of stuff I do, I have been able to find stuff I'm interested in. And when I don't, I like not working, too. Not working is pretty fun.
I wouldn't cry over it. I think if you can't find something interesting, make something interesting or do something interesting that's not movies. There's plenty to do that's interesting that's not movies. I wouldn't bitch about it.
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