- With an Oscar and two Golden Globes,
she's one of the best actresses of her generation,
she's one of my personal favorites, she's also an activist
and now a children's book author,
her new book is called "Natalie Portman's Fables."
It's pretty rad.
I literally checked it out recently.
You should check it out as well.
It's great, your kids will love it.
Let's say hi to Natalie Portman.
- Hi.
- Hi, so, first of all, I am such a huge fan
this is like these are days that my job,
this new job is so awesome
'cause never in the world would I ever meet you.
So well where are you and what are you up to there?
- Well, I'm in Sydney, Australia right now.
I'm getting ready to film Thor, the new Thor and--
- Yes, it's so cool that you're going to be Lady Thor.
So do you get all of Thor's powers?
Is my real question like I'm a huge nerd for Avengers
any kind of super hero, like I've seen them all.
So do you get powers?
Is my question.
- So she does have powers.
It's not exactly the same as Thor
it's her own version of it and she's called the Mighty Thor.
- Oh my gosh!
What a cool character to play.
So who is your personal favorite superhero
or favorite superpower?
- Well I have to say Thor I think
as the greatest superhero but of course I mean,
I'm so excited that we're gonna have a Black Widow movie
and Captain Marvel of course
and all the women of Black Panther and
there's so many exciting characters coming up.
- I know I think it's really important
what you just said too because I don't know
I feel like when we were kids
there wasn't as much representation for girls.
It's kinda cool 'cause
not only my little boy has all these like boy heroes
to look up to but also female ones.
So you're right in that sense it's very cool.
- Yeah, that's totally true.
I mean, I think people usually say
how great it is for the girls
but it's really important for the boys.
For the boys to get to see women
in those kinds of characters
and in those kinds of personalities and
it just expands opportunity for how we all see each other.
- Yeah, that's an amazing point of view perspective as well.
So what have you learned about yourself
during this strange time of separation?
And it's just been a weird 2020 for people
and everybody's kinda got their own thing
they've been going through, so what have you learned?
- Yeah, I've been so amazed by everyone's resilience
and flexibility and ability to adapt and community.
It really has been
such a devastating time obviously for so many people
with lives lost there's also been beautiful sides
of seeing how much time spent with your family
how meaningful that is.
Oh, it definitely makes you cherish your relationships
with loved ones more.
- Yeah Amen.
Have you been cooking for your family?
Do you cook a lot?
I'm not a great cook but I can.
(giggles)
- I love cooking.
I'm not like I have no training or skills
like if anyone saw the way I chop my vegetables or whatever,
they'd be horrified, but I love it
and I love trying new things and yeah
it's been a fun period of experimentation
'cause there were so many things
that we used to like order in or go to restaurants
that my kids loved
but all of a sudden we couldn't get any more
and I had to figure out how to make it at home.
- Oh my God, you're such a nice mom!
I'm just like, well, it's not happening.
(laughs)
Dream a different dream.
Well, what's your go-to dish?
Like if you're gonna like whip something up
for like your kids or something.
- I like making like a vegetable couscous
I use like kid friendly vegetables that I know they'll eat
but couscous takes five minutes to cook the actual grain
and then the vegetables also is like
you kind of like cut everything up and throw it in a pot
and then it's, you can wait for it to be done
do other stuff.
I always find those the easiest for kids.
Half the time you're like holding one kid in your arm
while you're throwing stuff in the pot so, and--
- Or they're yelling at each other and you're like, oh gosh.
(laughs)
Well, kids are so honest.
So what's one thing that came out of their mouths recently
that surprised you?
(laughs)
- So my son got to go to camp here actually
and he said to me
"mom some girls at camp said you look good for your age."
- Oh!
- Then he said, "it's good you keep your sunglasses on
because it covers your wrinkles."
So I was like thank you.
- Oh my gosh!
That's amazing, my kids--
- And then he said I love you so it makes up for it.
- I know, my kids will walk up to, they think big as adult.
Like when they say big they just mean adult
but they'll walk up to people and be like, "you're so big."
And like that's not really what everyone wants to hear.
But they for some reason they think
no 'cause you're a big I'm little person
you're a big person they think yeah
it's really, really fun to explain Natalie.
Well, as a girl, what book series were you obsessed with?
'Cause now you're an author
so what really inspired you as a kid?
- Oh, I mean this is an older kid
than like my kids are right now
but when I was in like nine to 12,
I was obsessed with "The Baby-Sitters Club."
- Oh my gosh, yes!
- Like I used to wait for the next one to come out
and like line up at the bookstore
and read it immediately in the car on the way home.
And I was just like, it was my life.
- Then now they have the Netflix series that just came out,
"The Baby-Sitters Club" yeah.
- It's so good.
- I know 'cause my six year old
should not be watching that but I found her
I mean it's just kind of a weird thing
for a six year old to watch I guess but she loves it but--
- But I think a lot of it would probably
just go over their heads it's nothing like nothing wild.
- Exactly, she doesn't even understand.
The only thing she does understand is the kissing parts
in any movie or anything she's like "oh my God!"
She like totally freaks out
and she can't help but like smile from ear to ear.
I'm so much in trouble when she's a teenager.
- It's so funny, it's so funny.
They just really like glom onto that so early.
- Well we both are in children's books
so what was your writing process?
- We love your children's book we read it all the time.
- Oh, thank you, thank you so much.
- I have a three and a half year old little girl
and she like, I made up my own tune with the song and--
- Oh my gosh, that's so nice!
Well, my kids are gonna flip I literally
like was reading this during lunch and I,
this is such a great idea.
Where did you come up with the idea?
- So when I was reading books to my kids I realized,
so my son is nine and my little girl is three and a half
and the books that we got when she was born as presents
were so different than the ones we had gotten for my son.
And I realized that that kind of like normal books
aren't addressing like gender issues,
the books that boys get too and that the books that
we were reading him the kind of classics
had almost all male characters.
And so I thought what if you took the classic stories
like the "Tortoise and the Hare," "The Three Little Pigs,"
"The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"
which are the three stories I retold
and just made it equal genders
just so that there's boy characters and girl characters.
So that boys and girls
when they're reading these classic stories are exposed
to girl feelings and boy feelings alike.
And because it's really timmy stories
are the way that we learn empathy.
We learn to imagine how someone else might be feeling
or what someone else's day is like.
Because when you read a book you care about the characters
and when you watch a movie you care about the characters.
And so you're basically practicing caring for somebody else
and what their life is like.
So to me, it was so important to teach both my kids empathy
for all people and all animals
'cause all the characters in the stories are animals
which also made me, it was a big effect on me as a kid
like reading books about animals with feelings and thoughts
and who talked to each other.
I mean, I definitely know that had an impact
on me becoming vegetarian at a young age too
because it would be hurt if I wanted to eat them.
- Yeah, like I don't know what to say.
Well, wait, your new book is called
"Natalie Portman's Fables" that's the name?
- Yes. - Yes and I--
- Yes, I have a copy.
- I know it's so great and I love,
I mean, the art is so cool it's so classic.
I was looking at it during lunch
and I was freaking out over it, it's so well done.
- Yeah Janna Mattia the illustrator is so talented
and I was so lucky and she has so many like little
jokes inside the art that I love
that my daughter loves finding like
there's a rabbit taking a tortoise out of the hat
and there's a porcupine making balloon animals--
- Oh my God!
- With all the thorns and it's just
there's so many sweet details that she put in
that are so fun for kids to notice.
- I love that.
It's like back in the day like pop up video of MTV
like did you know?
And it would be like, that's, it's amazing.