| Actress Natalie Portman Steps Into This Magic Emporium - Page 2 |
| Written by Brad Balfour | ||||
| Saturday, 17 November 2007 09:26 | ||||
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Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Magorium and Natalie Portman as Molly Mahoney are the perfect combination in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium"
Natalie Portman at the 22nd Annual American Cinematheque Award honoring Julia Roberts at the Beverly Hilton
Q: What were your fave toys growing up? NP: I was a big fan of Tub Toys. I was full into all the '80s toys: the Cabbage Patch Kid, the My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite. All of that stuff was fully in my sphere. And I did love the toys in the movie. The weird thing was the really simple, not-flashy stuff was the stuff that I got obsessive about. I loved the bouncy balls. I'd addictively [bounce them]. And, well, now I'm admitting it because they can't really come after me, but there was this barrel of squishy lizards, like stress-ball lizards. I took a lot of those. Q: What are some of the kid films you loved? NP: I’m trying to think. My childhood obsession from like age eight was not a kids’ movie, but (it was) "Dirty Dancing." I’d watch it 400 times. I watched a lot of musicals, like "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins" and stuff like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and those kinds of movies. I remember seeing those a lot as a kid... and oh, "My Fair Lady." Q: Was it tough being a child actress? Do you feel like there’s stuff you missed out on because you were working? NP: Look, I’m very happy with how everything worked out for me and I feel very, very lucky and there’s also this crazy thing that almost all of the actresses working today in my age range started out as kids; if you look at Lindsay Lohan, Scarlett Johannson, Keira Knightley, Kirsten Dunst, Christina Ricci, Claire Danes, or Reese Witherspoon—all of us started really young. Most of us started between 8 to 10 years-old, so it clearly gives people help if they want to do it as adults. Obviously, [starting out as a child stars] broke us all in. It’s sort of the same group of people who are getting the parts now as were then. I have awesome parents, but now seeing a lot of kid actors, it’s like… it makes me worried and I definitely did miss out on a lot of kid things, but everyone has their different path and it’s not something that I’m like, "Oh, I missed my childhood." I played and had fun. I was that kind of kid anyway. I always wanted to be a grown up. And now I have to be a grown up and I am like: "What was I doing? Why?" [laugh] I don’t think it’s a great thing now when I see… because also most kids get put into it because [their parents are there to] take some of their money. That’s usually the motivation, which, obviously, was not my case and that’s why I think I’ve been lucky. Q: Actress Marcia Gay Harden said you were an example of what’s good about young Hollywood today… NP: I’m just trying to be a good person and trying to be a person, too, and make mistakes and hope they don’t end up in a newspaper and hope they don’t influence other people, but you can’t stop being a flawed person. You have to fall on your face a lot, but it’s unfortunate... I’ve been lucky that most of my big falls have been missed by the tabloids and obviously other people have not been so lucky. I think it’s a tricky thing and I don’t think that it’s not necessarily a positive thing that’s happening with how young people are working and seeking that sort of attention and getting that sort of attention that then changes them... © Brad Balfour 2007 |
