by Neil Smith @ Virgin.net

Natalie Portman’s performance in 1994′s Leon alerted the world to a precocious new talent, talent confirmed in Beautiful Girls, Cold Mountain and Everyone Says I Love You. Her fame was guaranteed once she took the role of Queen Amidala in the Star Wars series, but though she still has one more outing in a galaxy far, far away her attention is now turning to more adult, raunchy roles. An Oscar nomination is expected for her fearless portrayal of a young stripper in new drama Closer, out in the UK in January. This month, however, she can be spotted in Garden State as Sam, a free spirit and compulsive liar who enters the life of Andrew Largeman (played by writer-director Zach Braff) and proceeds to turn it upside down. Virgin.net got chatting with her…

VN: After the epic sci-fi of Star Wars, was it a relief to tackle something in the romantic comedy genre?
Natalie Portman: This movie doesn’t really go into any genre. Movies now are made to mimic other successful movies in the past – they’re so formulaic you can guess the ending when you’ve seen the first five minutes. It was nice seeing something like this which is much messier and doesn’t go along with anything we’ve seen before.

What would you say is the biggest difference between Star Wars and something like Garden State?
When you don’t have money you don’t have time to waste – there’s no going back to your trailer for two hours while they do a lighting set-up! You also get to meet more people; you have a smaller crew, so you get to talk to people between takes.

Is it easier to perform emotional scenes in a film like Garden State, rather than in a film like Star Wars?
It is probably easier, because you can relate to it more directly. You have to find more circuitous paths to emotion when it’s not something that’s similar to something that you’ve personally experienced. But that can happen in realistic movies too – it doesn’t just have to be in science fiction.

You have great relationships in the film with Zach and co-star Peter Sarsgaard. How did those develop?
To create a rapport between all of us before filming, Zach and Peter came and visited me at university one weekend. We went out and partied, which was a great way to start out. It breaks down all barriers when you get a little liquored together. We kept that atmosphere on set, and I think you feel it in the film. There’s this sense of friends being with each other.

Did the fact that this was Zach’s first movie make you nervous at all?
I didn’t feel too nervous about it, probably because he wasn’t too nervous. He was really confident and very much a leader and he knew very specifically what he wanted to do. A lot of directors, even experienced directors, get stressed out because it is such a difficult job and there’s so much to think about. Directing can be hard because it has to be done with a great amount of humanity. People sometimes have a hard time keeping their egotistical vision intact while being humane to the people they’re working with. Zach was wonderful about that and really created this very collaborative feeling.

Moving on to Closer – how daunting was it to play a stripper?
I don’t think of the character as, like, a stripper or a pole dancer. She actually has several different jobs throughout the story; I suppose that just happens to be the most salient one for audiences. I mean, it’s not like I made a conscious decision to show a new side – namely my backside! It’s more about trying different things. Trying to mix it up keeps things interesting for yourself and for other people.

A lot of talented child performers haven’t been able to carry their careers into adulthood, whereas you seem to have done it seamlessly. Was there any stage along the way where you thought maybe it wouldn’t work out for you?
I am not really aware of that. I try to live in the now, not too much in what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s interesting, though, because my generation of actresses are largely people who started out as children. I mean, if you look at Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johannson, Christina Ricci… We all started out when we were 11 or 12 years old. Maybe it’s just that I have good peers; I guess we keep pushing each other.