- [Interviewer] Is there any truth to the rumor
that there was an alternate motivation?
That Padme was actually going to kill Anakin
in the scene? - Oh, that's cool.
No, no [laughing].
And cool, but nope [laughing].
Hi, I'm Natalie Portman
and I'm going to be watching some scenes
from throughout my career.
[upbeat music]
[cassette clicking] [tape whirring]
[intense music] [Natalie crying]
They had a few cameras rolling at the same time
'cause it was obviously a one-time occurrence
when they shaved my actual hair.
They had my hairdresser on the film playing the role
so that he knew what he was doing.
It wasn't like, thank God it wasn't just an actor
they handed an electric razor.
It was very dramatic
and a lot of pressure to get it in one take.
[intense music]
[door slamming]
[ominous music]
I was reading like a lot of kind of freedom fighter
kind of memoirs and biographies, autobiographies,
before to kind of get that mindset of people
who are imprisoned for their beliefs
and the kind of injustice of it
and the moral integrity that strengthens
and fortifies someone in those spaces.
And I was really like in that whole world.
- [Guard] Look, all they want
is one little piece of information.
Just give them something, anything.
- Thank you, but I'd rather die behind the chemical sheds.
- She has so much integrity in the story.
That's why I think it's like so meaningful.
I feel like the whole "V for Vendetta" story
and the mask, I see it at rallies now.
I mean it's really just so symbolic
for a lot of people I think
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
- Our lives can change with every breath we take.
We both know that
and you tell them "to let go of what's gone."
- I love Ashley Judd more than maybe anyone.
Like she is so incredible as an actress to watch,
but then also as a person, like I filmed this the summer
after I graduated high school before I went to college
and she like got me all these like sheets
and pillowcases for my dorm room afterwards
and was like got me all like ready
and she was just the most warm, wonderful friend
and now I recently reunited with her, saw her at the UN,
she's become the most brilliant advocate for women's rights
and speaks so eloquently
and forcefully for women's place in society.
And I'm just in awe of her.
I mean she's a professor at Harvard now.
She's like kind of can do anything
and she's just one of the most courageous, brilliant,
awesome people I know.
- And tell them to "Hold on like hell to what they've got."
Each other and a mother who would die
for them and almost did.
- I think it might've been the first time
I played a mom on screen.
And so wild to do that so long
before it happened in real life
and I think I had a little bit of an inkling
that like when you become a mom you have
that quick knowledge of you know how to take care
of other people and she has that in this moment.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
- Come away with me, help me raise our child,
leave everything else behind while we still can.
- It was such a big part of my life
to be part of "Star Wars" for so many years.
I made the first one when I was 16-years-old
and then this one I did when I was 22.
- Obi Wan was right, you've changed.
- It was really wild to do green screen.
It felt like a very pure form of acting actually.
It's like almost like when you're a kid
and you're pretending that you know your refrigerator box is
your rocket ship, you know, that you have
to really not just create the world inside of you,
but the world around you as well.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
- First off, the name is Mighty Thor.
[metal clanking]
And secondly, if you can't say Mighty Thor,
I'll accept Dr. Jane Foster!
[lightening sizzling]
- It's pretty amazing, you know, you kind of feel like,
"Oh I guess I'll just get to play petite women
my whole life."
And then they're like, "No, you're gonna play
a 6'3" character."
Then you watch yourself on screen.
I'm like, "This is what it looks like
to be like a big person.
This is what it feels like."
- Eat my hammer! [lightening cracking]
- The most surprising thing was how much you have to eat.
Like it was all about like protein shakes all day,
which are just so gross after a while.
So it was a funny world to get an insight into.
- [Interviewer] Would you ever do something like this again?
- Oh it was, yeah, it would be so fun to do.
You get a lot of cool points
with your kids when you do a superhero movie.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
[monster roaring]
[gun firing]
This is from "Annihilation," which I loved making.
This was back of the studio.
We shot this and there was an animatronic crocodile monster
that we used, but most of it was CG'd after.
[gun firing] [crocodile roaring]
I was early in my pregnancy here of my second child.
So nobody knew,
but I was like, felt really hardcore being like pregnant
and like shooting a machine gun like that.
It really felt radical to be with
so many amazing women together doing this kind of story
and playing these kinds of roles.
Tall grass and military fatigues
with these big guns on us and packs.
Like, it certainly wasn't like anything I'd ever done
and I hadn't seen it before.
So it really, it did feel very radical.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
- It just seemed to me such a shame when we came here
to find hardly anything of the past in the house.
Hardly anything before 1902.
- It was so awesome working with Greta Gerwig.
It was my second time working with her
after "No Strings Attached"
and it was so fun to like have my friend
and get to see her be amazing
and now, of course, she's just blown us away
with her writing and directing prowess.
- Well, if they don't want it, in the past,
you see, they could sell it or throw it out.
- It was really intense, you know, it was the first time
and only time I've ever had to do something
that was so precise
because we were replicating these exact videos
with the same shots and using the original sound.
So I was practicing not only the words,
but also the exact rhythms of the original interview.
It was almost like learning music that you had
to learn the exact rhythms and where she took a breath
and where she sighed and all of that.
It was hard to lose it after doing it for so long
'cause it really became part of my psyche.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
[intense music]
Well I think in this scene she realizes
that she's hurt herself.
This pursuit of perfection is literally killing her.
[orchestral music]
- It was amazing because actually
the physical prep helped me a lot for the psychological side
because I really got a sense of the pain
that you subject yourself to
and regularize yourself to the physical pain.
Also the pressure to be very thin,
which is like a whole other self deprivation.
The pressure of the competition and the perfection
and all of that.
I got also from a lot of the people who were training me
as we were spending the time training 'cause it's hours
and hours and hours I would spend with these individuals
and I would start feeling their personalities
and how the experience of trying
to live up to these expectations shaped them.
And that was all really helpful
for the psychological aspect.
[upbeat music] [cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
- [Woman] They're sweet, aren't they.
- Very.
They're a very beloved part
of this community.
- I can see that.
- This couple Elizabeth watches, Gracie and Joe,
have invited her knowing that she is studying them
and they're kind of performing for her.
They're kind of performing this
like normal, American, you know, barbecue.
And of course there's this very sinister history
underneath it because of the crime
that started their relationship that they're trying to kind
of rewrite with this performance for her.
And I love all the like Americana with the flag,
this kind of idyllic sunset.
But one of the things about shooting in Savannah
is it is this beautiful, idyllic place,
but with a very ugly history, which is not dissimilar
to Joe and Gracie's relationship.
I think it just asks so many amazing questions about like,
can art be amoral?
What parts of our identity do we perform?
How do we really get to truth?
Is it possible to get to truth through these characters
that are really like unpredictable and wild and ferocious?
[cassette clicking]
[tape whirring]
Thanks everybody for watching, I hope you enjoyed it.