Note: When Natalie says she's proud of Rosie at the beginning of the interview, it's a reference to the high school shootings in Littleton, Colorado the month before; O'Donnell had gotten in the news by arguing about gun control with Tom Selleck on an earlier show.

[Rosie introduces Natalie and NP walks out and sits down.]

Rosie O'Donnell: Well, hi little Natalie, how are you? [a Queen Amidala doll falls over]

NP: Hi. Oh, you dropped me.

RO: Oh, did I knock you over? Oh, jeez, I knocked over the Queen. Don't banish me to another island.

NP: I won't, I won't.

RO: How are you?

NP: I'm so good!

RO: You look wonderful.

NP: Thank you so much.

RO: You're all grown up since the movie we did together.

NP: Yes.

RO: We did a movie, Beautiful Girls, when you were just a little girl. Were you like fourteen?

NP: Thirteen.

RO: Thirteen...and now you're about to go off to college.

NP: Mm hmm.

RO: Good for you. Look at how you've grown up! I'm so proud of you.

NP: Thanks...I'm so proud of YOU.

RO: Oh, thanks Natalie.

NP: I love what you're doing here, and all your power and saying what you believe.

RO: Well yeah, you gotta do it...you ever see 'Les Miz'? There's a line says 'If I speak I am condemned, if I stay silent I am damned'. You gotta make that choice inside you of what you believe, what you want to talk about. You know what I mean?

NP: And I'm in high school now and I know what you're talking about--it's scary.

RO: It is scary in high school, yeah it is. You go to regular high school now?

NP: I go to public high school so I know what's going on, I mean the stuff is hitting my school so...it's scary. I mean it's a really scary time to be in high school and someone needs to say something about it and not be, like, scared...

RO: Well thanks very much.

NP: Good.

RO: It's lovely to see you.

NP: Thank you.

RO: I love the movie, I saw it twice.

NP: Oh, good, I'm so glad. I love it too.

RO: It's really great, and I think that the message that it gives out about to stay away from the dark side and fear and aggression and to go towards light, such a positive message.

NP: Mmhmm.

RO: You knew when they asked you to be in this it would be the hugest thing...

NP: I didn't realize...I mean, I hadn't even seen the movie when I got the part. I hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films.

RO: Really.

NP: Yes. [laughs] So I had to...I had to like go see the movies once I got the part, and um, I didn't realise, I mean I knew it was going to be big but I didn't realise it was gonna be--[points to the Amidala doll] THIS, you know. [laughs]

RO: Right.

NP: All over your desk.

RO: Right. Now, the, the costumes are unbelievably beautiful.

NP: Yes.

RO:: And the hair, what, what kind makeup and hair schedule did you have?

NP: It was insane! I mean we, we had like, two and a half hours of hair and makeup every day, and it was really bizarre cuz the costumes they made really easy to get in and out of, but the hair, you know, those big hair things, there was um, you know they wove it into your hair so you couldn't take it off. So you'd have to go to the bathroom and you could get out of your clothes really easily...so, sitting in my underwear, I'd go to the bathroom, and there's this huge headpiece, and I'd be sitting there, like holding it hoping it doesn't get...involved. [laughs]

RO: [laughs] And it was in the desert too, so it must have been hot in there?

NP: Well, we didn't shoot any of the Queen parts in the desert, but um, yeah we were. It was about a hundred and fifty degrees, um, in the middle of the day--it was horrible and, we tried to, the prop guys tried to fry an egg on R2-D2! [laughs]

RO: [laughs] But did it work--no?

NP: Well, 'cause I don't think it's actually metal, I think it's other stuff, 'cause someone actually goes in there--Kenny Baker, he's a wonderful actor, he, he actually goes in there, so if they made it out of real metal, I think, you know, it would be kind of dangerous.

RO: Yeah, I remember doing that on Long Island growing up when they said it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. I remember--

NP: Did you actually do it?

RO: --trying it--

NP: [laughs]

RO: --cracking an egg and it would just be a big mushy egg on a hot sidewalk.

NP: Yeah, it doesn't work.

RO: And never fry or anything...

NP: It's such a lie.

RO: Exactly. Now, I also heard the sets got destroyed.

NP: Yeah, we had this huge flood, um, which is really bizarre 'cause we're in the middle of the desert in the summer and [begins to laugh] there's like the first, you know, rainstorm there in like twenty five years or something. So all the--it's actually one of my most embarrassing moments because all the sets were destroyed, and um, only one set was salvaged and um, we were going to shoot on that and they came to me and they said it's so flooded, we're gonna have to go to work on the spaceship today. And I thought they meant that it was like, so flooded that the only way we could GET there was like all of us would get in this spaceship and we'd go to work. So I talked to Ewan [McGregor] and I was like, 'Oh my god, Ewan, we have to go to work on the spaceship today!' [laughs] And he was like, what are you talking about? He made fun of me so many times after that [Audience laughing]'cause obviously the, the only set we could work on...not go to work on...it was terrible.

RO: Exactly--you, you, ah, you missed the premiere again. Is this...cuz I know you missed the premiere of Beautiful Girls.

NP: Well, I mean, I went to all these premieres, cuz you know you want to show support for the movie, but I didn't go to the parties, cuz I always have finals. These movies always come out in summer and I have to study so...

RO: So you went to--

NP: They made this big deal out of it, they, like, all these people called up my publicist and they're like, why isn't she there? Why didn't you go to the parties?

RO: I think it's great that you went home and studied.

NP: I had to go study.

RO: Cuz you have very good grades, don't you, young lady?

NP: Thank you.

RO: Yes, you do. You have straight A's don't you?

NP: Mmmhmm.

RO: There you go! Give me a little high five on that, Natalie Portman! [Audience cheers and applauds. Natalie laughs]

RO: I also says here that you just got your driver's license.

NP: Yes I did, I did, it...

RO: Was that nerve-racking?

NP: It was, it was a little weird. I, I was doing Anne Frank all last year so I never went through the normal, like driver's ed, you know. So I was like the grandma in the car sitting knitting in the corner. [laughs] You know, um, I was at least two years older than everyone in my car and um, it was a little weird, it was definitely weird.

RO: When you took the test did you pass the first time?

NP: Yeah, but...I had some issues, but we won't discuss that. [Laughs along with audience.]

RO: Really? What, the parallel park messed you up?

NP: Well, the paral...actually on my test I aced the parallel park.

RO: You did?

NP: It's the first time I ever did it right. Now I'll never do it again that well, but [laughs], but...

RO: And you know what? You'll never have to, you'll just keep driving around the block.

NP: [laughs] Exactly.

RO:: That's what I do. It's like, there's a space!

NP: I, I, you know we, I was practicing with my dad like two days before, and it took me like an hour and a half to parallel park. I was going back and forwards, and I hit, you know those big stone potted plant type things? It was literally, like tilting over, I was like--my dad was like--no no no no no! And um, the people in the car next to you, you know, when they see that you're, you know, a young driver, they just find it so amusing and they just kind of sit and stare and smile at you, and [sarcastically] that makes you feel better. You already feel like stupid enough that you're, you know, taking an hour to park and they're like oh, isn't that cute. And you're just like, shut up!

RO: "Honey, remember when we didn't know how to parallel park, look at her, she doesn't know either!" [Natalie laughs] I'm like you--I can't parallel park to save my life.

NP: Yeah, yeah.

RO: Now do you have--when you get your license at your age can you drive without an adult?

NP: Yeah.

RO: Or--you can, yeah.

NP: Yeah, I'm seventeen now, almost eighteen, when you're sixteen you can get, you know, your junior license, but I kind of missed that whole stage.

RO: Right--well we got you some car stuff...

NP: [surprised] Oh! Thank you!

RO: [reaches back for a big basket of car goodies] Yeah, we got you something you might need for your car..

NP: Thank you so much!

RO: We got you some dice to hang up in the window. [audience laughs and claps] You never know, Natalie. We got you a little gauge for your...something...here you can hold that...[Natalie takes the basket] There you go.

NP: Thank you.

RO: Um, I also, you know I wanted to get you tweezers because when we did the movie you got a little thing going on with the tweezers.

NP: I'm pretty obsessed with tweezing. It's, it's a little scary. They asked what, you know, what my obsessions were, and I have, like, a weird thing with tweezing. I mean, you know, you got those like, those little growths that they're coming back and you just have to get it out? And it's like, I get, I'm really...

RO: Are you a daily tweezer?

NP: I'm, I'm a bi, tri-daily tweezer.

RO: WOW, now that is a stunning, you know, thing to state here on the show.

NP: [laughs] Yeah, I, it's a very confessional moment.

RO: But I've never, I've never seen you without perfect eyebrows, I must say...

NP: [laughs] Thank you.

RO: Not even when you were a young girl.

NP: Thank you, yeah.

RO: ...and I was like look at that young child with eyebrow perfection! [Natalie laughs]

RO: Here I am thirty seven, hairs growing every which way I don't know. I'm so happy that you've grown up to be exactly who you are.

NP: Thank you.

RO: The movie as everyone knows is out and fabulous. And we have Star Wars stuff for everyone in the aud--the books--[talking offscreen] are they all getting today? No? They're not? What are they getting?

NP: [looking offscreen with her] I think they got toys back there...little dolls...

RO: Yeah they're getting--[asks audience] did you get the toys?

Audience: NO!!!

RO: Yeah, what are they getting?

NP: Dolls--they will get dolls--they will, they will.

RO: Dolls? You're getting the dolls, you're getting the dolls! [audience claps loudly][to Natalie] And good luck at college, wherever it is that you go.

NP: [laughs] Thank you, thank you.

RO: Natalie Portman! [audience applauds]