Beautiful Girls, showing at Ackerman Grand Ballroom tonight, stars a young actress whose professionalism and skill belie her age.

Natalie Portman may be just 14, but don't let her age fool you. The youngest star of the new film, "Beautiful Girls", has, like her screen counterpart Marty, "a very old soul". The film screens tonight at Ackerman, after which writer -producer Scott Rosenberg and director Ted Demme will be on hand to answer questions.

In "Beautiful Girls", the precocious Marty lives next door to Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton), who's in town for his high school reunion. Despite their 15 -year age gap, Marty believes herself to be Willie's soul mate and, in a number of delicately humorous exchanges, entreats him to wait for her. "When I got the script, I just fell in love with Marty," Portman recalls. "It's so rare to find a script where the character is my age, and smart and funny--and doesn't have sex." Portman herself is smart (an A student), funny and hasn't the least interest in sex. A veteran of three films, including "Heat" and "The Professional", Portman is nevertheless serious about not letting acting interfere with her youth. She seems intent on finding a balance between her career and her personal life, unlike many other young actors who hit the fast lane too soon. "Natalie's got her head on straight," says co-star Hutton. "She's going to be fine. I'm not at all worried about her." It's a conviction writer -producer Scott Rosenberg also shares. "She's the smartest person involved in this movie," says Rosenberg. "We were so unbelievably lucky to have made this movie at a time when Natalie Portman was a viable human being," he adds. "We saw a lot of girls and nobody even came close. To me, she is Marty."

Finding an actress who could play the role without being pretentious was "the greatest challenge in making the movie," says producer Cary Woods. "We'd said going in that we couldn't make the movie if we couldn't find Marty. It was the linchpin of the film." Portman knows something about Lolita-type roles, having played young Matilda opposite Jean Reno's Leon in Luc Besson's 1994 thriller, "The Professional". But she draws the line at nudity: Portman passed on the chance to play Lolita in the upcoming remake of Stanley Kubrick's classic film for that reason. Though the central relationship in "The Professional" was not sexual, some critics were deeply troubled by the film's implications. "I wasn't really surprised at the reactions to the film because people see things in different ways," Portman says. "But it was such a pure relationship--the same as in 'Beautiful Girls'.

In both movies, no boundaries are ever crossed. It's not dirty in any way. I'm sorry some people found it offensive, but it wasn't meant that way." She credits her level-headed attitude to her parents, who try to give their daughter a normal childhood and insist she only act if she maintains her GPA. She attends public school in the suburbs of New York City and seems fully intent on attending college. "I'm having a regular life and a regular upbringing," she says. "I just have this hobby, my acting, that I do outside." Portman starting making a living off her "hobby" at age 11 when she went to a pizza parlor one day and met a representative from Revlon who was seeking young talent for a children's line of cosmetics. He invited Portman to try modeling. "I told him I didn't want to model", she recalls. "I said I wanted to act." Not many young girls would be so defiant, but Portman has always known exactly what she wanted. Despite her impressive track record, Portman admits acting may just be a phase. "I'm not sure if I'll act when I grow up," she says. "I'll decide when I'm an adult."

And the alternative? "We'll see." Portman leans back in her chair and smiles. "Maybe I'll be an astronaut."

FILM AND SPEAKERS: "Beautiful Girls" screens at Ackerman Grand Ballroom tonight at 8 p.m. with Q&A including Scott Rosenberg and Ted Demme to follow. Tickets available at the CTO. For more info call (310) 825-2538.

[Note: This was a special screening at UCLA. The Daily Bruin is the UCLA student newspaper.]