TG: Did you think long and hard about taking this role, even though it was George Lucas asking and it was a Star Wars film?

NP: I really thought about it for many weeks before I agreed to do the film. First, because it places you in the limelight and pushes you into the public eye more than probably any other film could. Second, it was a huge commitment to make as a fourteen-year-old, to decide that I was going to be doing three films in the next ten years. That's a huge decision to make at any point in your life, and especially when you're fourteen and don't know what you want to do with your life. You don't know what you want to do the rest of the day, you know? So I really thought about it a lot and weighed my considerations and talked to all the people I love and trust before I made my decision.

TG: What did you enjoy about playing Queen Amidala?

NP: I really love the fact that this queen is a young woman, because you don't get to see young women on film as rulers, ever. I don't think there's ever been someone who's that young as a queen and I think that's so wonderful, because young girls don't have that kind of role model in their lives. In real life or reflected on film...it just hasn't happened, you know. Even queens are figureheads today, and when you see there are a few female leaders, they're usually much older. Girls [lose] a lot of confidence in themselves as they grow up. They become much more worried about their looks than their intelligence or their personalities or their kindness or their souls. I think people have become really warped by the media, so to see someone who's so wonderful because she's smart and in control and really knows what's going on, is a good person and is compassionate--it's a great image for girls to have.

TG: How do you compare working on a huge special effects-driven film to working on more character-oriented pieces?

NP: It's a different skill completely to do a film like this and to do a character piece, and I don't think it has to do with the amount of acting. It's just a different kind: This is a much more technical way to act. There's much more to think about and if anything it's more challenging because you have to be an element in a huge film, whereas in a character piece, you are the film. You have to learn how to blend. It's like being in the chorus rather than being a soloist, and it's really wonderful. We really had to completely change because you've got to think about where you're walking, where you're looking, where your eyeline is, where the CGI character is going to be standing. It's much more than just, 'what am I thinking at this point and what are my emotions and what do I think of everyone around me?'

TG: Have you ever thought of doing one of those teen films like Can't Hardly Wait or I Know What You Did Last Summer?

NP: I don't know. I really don't get a lot of those scripts. I don't know if my agent weeds them out or what. I haven't actively decided you know, not to do a teen film, although the ones that have come my way haven't been intelligent or special in any way. I've seen some that I thought were fun and nice movies. I think it's a harmless genre. It's something that's fun for the time and then kind of disappears, but I'd really love to do a great teen movie. I love all those classic, '80s John Hughes films: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, that's what I grew up on.

TG: You plan on going to college this fall. Are you worried at all about what effect that might have on your career?

NP: [Film] is a very attractive business to be in. There are a lot of really wonderful things that this business allows you to do. But I would never want to limit myself and my options, especially at such a young age. I mean, I've been working in films since I was eleven. And by the time I'm done with college, I will have been in this industry for ten years and I might be ready to move onto something else, or I might be perfectly happy and want to keep going. So I really just want to keep everything open.

I'm very interested in a number of different subjects, from math to economics to languages. I'm very interested in learning in general. I could use education just to become a fuller person, or--if I find something that I think I'll love doing more than acting--then I could easily switch careers, although obviously my options are limited. It would be very strange to be, like, a lawyer or a doctor, after you've been in Star Wars. I don't know how much people are going to trust your skills and your checking up on them, you know, if you're like, Princess Leia's mom.