Natalie Portman - Brief Article

Interview, May, 2000 by Brendan Lemon

SHE KNOWS HOW TO USE HER NOODLES

The problems of Novalee Nation, the seventeen-year-old hard-luck character at the heart of the new movie Where the Heart Is, are not small ones. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she finds herself giving birth on the floor of an Oklahoma Wal-Mart. A small film with oversized ambitions, the story nonetheless stays true and affecting because of the actress playing Novalee: Natalie Portman. Portman, eighteen, first caught moviegoers' attention six years ago with her stunning feature debut in Luc Besson's The Professional, and though she is best known worldwide for her turn as Queen Amidala in last year's Star Wars movie (a role she will repeat in George Lucas's follow-up), it is her work in small movies such as Beautiful Girls and last year's Anywhere But Here that have best displayed her multiple talents. The actress's instinctive intelligence has always been impressive. Thus it's appropriate that her dog is named Noodles: Portman has noodles enough for three people her age.

The beauty of Portman's performance as Novalee stems from her refusal to condescend to the character's plight. She never makes you feel as if she's too cool, assured, or cerebral an actress to inhabit Novalee's skin authentically. This humanity has always been part of Portman's gift, particularly when she played the title character in the 1997 Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank, but it has never been more evident than in Where the Heart Is.

Natalie Portman