by Paul Fischer

At 23, it would be fair to say that Natalie Portman is a thespian veteran. The Israeli-born actress, who leapt further into our pop cultural consciousness with George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy, is a veteran of Hollywood with almost 16 films to her credit, but also of the press junket roundabout that is part and parcel of her profession. Always ferociously protective when it comes to her private life, despite rumours of her dating actor Gael Garcia Bernal, Portman is clearly passionate about her work and life as one of Hollywood's leading young actresses. Her latest film, the often quirky comedy/drama Garden State, casts Portman as Sam, an acknowledged pathological liar with a warm heart and an irresistibly free-spirited personality, whose relationship with the more morose and introspective Large, paves the way for the latter's development. Sam expresses her uniqueness in a variety of ways in the film, while Portman says she allows her family and relationships to allow her particular uniqueness to manifest itself. "I think that the most special thing, the thing that makes me happiest and where I feel most myself, is when I'm with my friends, family and people I love and who love me. So I guess when I'm feeling sort of
bland, I think of all those relationships, which is how we largely define ourselves. We're uniquely at the centre of all these different relationships and everyone is uniquely at the centre of their own web of relationships," Portman explains. It is these relationships, Portman adds, that keeps her whirlwind Hollywood life grounded. "I mean, there's nothing larger in life than what happens between two people and luckily, as you get older, there are more and more people with whom you have these unique relationships. So it's always very informative about who you are and who they are and understanding everyone better."

Portman has consistently proven that she is far more than a pretty face in the crowd here. Appearing in a myriad of eclectic films of varying scale and scope, Portman completed studying psychology at Harvard, which she sees invaluable in the constant pursuit of her acting career. "One of the greatest things was you learn about yourself and other people at such a crucial point when you study psychology in college, because 18 to 21 is pretty major formative years for self development and relationship development. Hopefully it hasn't messed too much with me, but been more positive, and I always use it in acting stuff because there are so many trends of how people behave, that helps you understand people in a more complex way."

In a film and stage career defined by its sheer diversity, Portman agrees that doing more character-based films such as Garden State is a release having done the larger-than-life Star Wars films. "It definitely brings you down to the essential elements, as there aren't explosions, battles or special effects but really about the characters, story and relationships. So, it definitely makes it more concentrated, where all the energy's concentrated in this one thing instead of dispersed over a larger scene," Portman explains. "The cool thing with Garden State, was that we didn't have the time and budget to do lighting setups for two hours, so we just had to keep barrelling forward, going and going and just shooting non-stop so I also think that sense of urgency and energy of that really carried over into the film."