It's midnight in Paris and Natalie Portman has just come off the set...

Q: What can you tell us about this new Woody Allen movie you're working on?

A: Nothing! I'm not allowed to say anything about it. I can only tell you who's in it: Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Gaby Hoffman, Tracey Ullman, Woody's in it...it's a huge cast.

Q: Right, Woody Allen's always very secretive about his films. But can you at least tell us how it's going?

A: It's really fun because this is the first movie I've done with other kids, so we all hang out together--we go to the movies and stuff.

Q: Do you have to miss out on a lot of "normal kid stuff" because of your work?

A: A lot of people who get into an adult world when they're still really young tend to stop doing all the things they used to do. They forget about school and any extension of themselves outside their career. But I love what I'm doing because I get the best of both worlds. I get to be in this adult business and meet all these cool people, but at the same time, I get to be in school with real people and hang out. I don't do that many movies, I'm in school a lot--and I do that on purpose: I turn down a lot of stuff because of school. I mean, acting is my extra-curricular activity. My friends do soccer or basketball, and I act.

Q: So you must like school.

A: I used to go to a private school and I didn't like it. There were 20 people in my grade, and the kids who learn fast and the kids who learn slow were all dumped together. But now I'm in public school and it's so much better. There are 500 kids in the freshman class and there are 2,000 kids in the whole school, so I have 2,000 kids to choose from to find friends and whatever.

Q: What's your favorite subject?

A: I love math because there's always an answer to everything. Algebra and geometry are so logical--once you understand the concept, you can figure it out with logic and then you don't have to study. I hate studying.

Q: "Legend" has it that you got discovered in some pizzeria by this guy who thought you'd be a great model--but you turned him down flat. How come you're down on modeling?

A: One year, a local dance supply company came to my dance class looking for girls to be in its catalog. I did it and I hated it. It was so boring! So not stimulating. I couldn't handle it. But I've always been performing for people. When I was 7 years old, I put on shows for everyone at my grandpa's funeral. I was always the little entertainer.

Q: How do you decide what films to do?

A: I read a script, and if I relate to the character and am drawn to her, I want to do it. If I like a script and my parents don't, then we have to talk...My parents are really protective of me, especially when it comes to sexy movies. Ninety percent of the scripts I get are sexy...very sexy...a lot have nudity. And it's like, "What are you thinking? I'm 14!" [she turns 15 in June] Nudity is really made disgusting [in movies]; I think if you're going to have nudity in a film, you should only do it if it's really necessary. It should be pure. Right now, I would never do nudity, and I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable with it. I mean, I couldn't imagine walking down the street and wondering if the people next to me saw me nude!

Q: Yeah, but you have had some pretty provocative roles. Where does all that sexuality come from?

A: People my age have a lot of sexuality. It's a mixture of your hormones just beginning and everything you see around you--TV, movies, whatever. If we were living in a bubble, we wouldn't know what to do with hormones--we'd probably just be eating a lot or something!--but when you see this stuff around, you go, "Oh, so that's what hormones are for!"

Q: In Beautiful Girls your character, Marty, has a lot going for her besides her sex appeal--and Willy [Timothy Hutton] is more than just attracted to her; it goes deeper than that.

A: These characters find each other and discover that they're really compatible- -but there's just a big age difference.

Q: Has that ever happened to you in real life?

A: Oh, please don't ask me that [laughs]! There's such a difference in maturity between guys and girls. I mean, it's been scientifically proven...

Q: I bet your parents are as protective about your personal life about what movies you choose--like when it comes to guys.

A: They'll let me go places in a group of people that includes boys, like guy -girl parties. But no one I know really "goes out on dates" anyway. You just all hang out together. It's so rare to find the right person, someone that you really connect and feel comfortable with.

Q: Besides your parents, whom do you feel closest to and really trust?

A: My best friend Rachael is totally my soul mate. She's so amazing and so cool. We're always saying the exact same thing at the same time, we read each other's minds and feel each other's feelings. We can have really deep intellectual discussions, and then the next second be beating each other up and laughing about stupid things.

Q: What are your passions? Are you into music?

A: I'm very into music. Right now, my favorites are Juliana Hatfield, Alanis Morisette, Bjork--and I'm in love with the Jackson 5.

Q: And I know you just say no to meat.

A: I've been a vegetarian for six years. My dad's a doctor, and when I was 8, I went to one of his medical conferences where they were demonstrating laser surgery on a chicken. I was so mad that a chicken had to die, I never at meat again. And in sixth grade, we dissected a fish, and I got so sick that I never ate fish again. I eat milk and egg products, but I only use skim milk products because I heard that for whole milk they give steroids to cows to make the milk richer, and that makes their urinating painful.

Q: Do you think you're beautiful?

A: I don't look at myself and go, "Omigod, I'm ugly," but I also don't look at myself and go, "Wow! I'm so beau-u-u-u-utiful!" Every person has her little insecurities.

Q: How do you spend your money?

A: I'm saving my money because I never want to be dependent on anyone. When I'm an adult, I don't want to rely on Mommy and Daddy's money.

Q: Do you have any role models?

A: There are a lot of people I admire. I rally admire Elizabeth Glaser, the AIDS activist. And Itzhak Rabin--he was such a hero. I was born in Israel and I go there lot--all my dad's family is there. I'm not religious at all, but Israel is such a spiritual place. And people talk until they're blue in the face about moral issues and what should happen in the country. I hope there will be peace there. Israelis and Arabs are cousins; we have the same descendants--yet there's this hatred. It's just ridiculous that people kill other people in the name of religion. No religion advocates killing.