Natalie Portman Q&A

Chris Tilly catches up with the 'Garden State' star on the set of 'V for Vendetta'.

Mar 17 2006

Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond in the forthcoming film version of the critically acclaimed graphic novel 'V for Vendetta'. An incendiary tale of a masked freedom fighter fighting a totalitaian government in near-future Britain, the film is sure to cause a stir when it hits screens this week, and The TOMB caught up with Portman to discuss acting opposite a mask, playing a terrorist and shaving off all her hair for the feature.

When did you first hear about the project and how did you become involved?

They sent me the script which I read and really liked. Then I went out to San Francisco to talk to James McTeigue, I read for him, and a few weeks later they called and offered me the film.

What attracted you to the material?

It's a great action, superhero-type movie, but it leaves you thinking for a long time afterwards. I've been working on this now for almost four months and I'm still not sure about certain issues that it raises, I just keep changing my mind. I think it's really good at being ambiguous about its message. It's a very unusual sort of superhero movie.

Were you aware of the graphic novel?

I wasn't – I read it when I read the script. And it's amazing.
 
Does the character of Evey follow the same arc in the film as she does in the book?

It is the same sort of arc. My character has been changed a little bit, because in the graphic novel she's 16, she's not the brightest girl and she's working the streets for the first time when she meets V. In this she's in her early 20s and is a young woman with a job as a PA at a television station, but she does follow that arc in that she's a passive character who has that family history of dealing with the injustices of the government. And she sort of accidentally gets thrown in with this freedom fighter and slowly transforms. I think the character is a little different and a little less 'girl in a comic book'.

So what attracts her to V in the script then?

Well, she sort of ends up with him by accident. It's an amazing relationship between them, because it's got everything. Sometimes it's a romance, sometimes it's a prisoner and captive relationship, sometimes it seems like it's father and daughter. I was really surprised by it – to have all of those aspects. I think it's helped by the mask too, because it allows someone to be so many different things. You can really use your imagination about whatever's underneath it and you can project whatever's going on with you onto the character.

What's it like playing opposite an actor in a mask?

It's amazing because you can really get so much from the movement and the voice. And also, all of my frustrations – as an actor working like that – I can use in the character, because Evey is also always wondering, 'What does he look like? What's going on in there? Is he sad right now? Is that a smile? Is he going with his mask or against his mask?' All of those things, the character is probably doing.

Has the film been more demanding physically or mentally?

Mentally, definitely. It's something that really keeps you thinking, and there's so much history behind it. It's amazing that you're reading the graphic novel, and then the Guy Fawkes history and the background to the gunpowder plot, and then the connections with Macbeth, and there are constantly these little things you pick up – it just seems endless. It keeps you thinking and researching all these different issues.

Do you think it's a good time to make a film like this?

Yes, it will make people fight. You'll go home and have a fight about it – what your opinion is, different definitions of violence, what do we call terrorism, what do we call freedom fighting, are our martyrs different to other cultures' martyrs, is some violence better than other violence? Can you rank types of violence? And we do, every day. You have first degree murder and manslaughter. You have an intention to kill someone and whether you actually do kill someone or not. Is a hate crime just like a regular crime? These issues are so arbitrary sometimes, and there are such lines we draw between how we classify and categorise different types of violence. Hopefully this will get people thinking about some of those issues.

Did you enjoy shaving your hair off for the film?

It's been really nice to step away from vanity a little bit. The time you spend on your appearance as a woman - if you put all that together you'd have an extra ten years of your life. It's been great to get away from that. But I do get recognised a lot more now. I'm usually really anonymous because you usually have to really look at someone to recognise them, but because I'm really small I kind of blend into a crowd. But now, people look and then they recognise me.

So will you keep it or are you looking forward to having the long locks back?

I really like it, but I'm simultaneously aware that it takes a really long time to grow back, so the sooner, the better!

To check out our 'V for Vendetta' set visit, click here, and to read the rest of this interview, in which Portman discusses her forthcoming projects, click here.

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