As the female lead in Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, Natalie Portman downplayed the pressure. What else would you expect from the graduating Long Island high school senior who balances school with work? She only acts during her summertime hiatus and misses minimal time from school. She's already planning on attending college this fall and isn't limiting herself to acting in her not-too-distant future. Portman speaks to us about believing the hype, Liam Neeson being a father figure and her next movie, Anywhere But Here.

AJ: Were you surprised by the way you looked after you get all your makeup on?

NP: It was really weird looking at myself and my friends and parents were all freaked out by seeing me in that makeup and hair.

AJ: Is it strange to see yourself everywhere now?

NP: It is hard to get used to but I knew what I was getting into. You don't sign on for Star Wars and not realize what's going to happen. There's lots more hype then I ever imagined.

AJ: What surprised you about the hype?

NP: I thought there was going to be a big action movie, a big summer movie, but I didn't realize they were calling it the event of the decade. It's kind of unfair to any film, although the excitement over it is appreciated by everyone involved. It's not really fair because the movie will obviously suffer if people have expectations. It's a little scary now.

AJ: Weren't you a little apprehensive about taking one of the highest profiles in the movie?

NP: It was a huge consideration for me how big it was. I really had to think about whether or not I wanted to do the movie for a very long time because I found out when I was 14 [that] I signed 10 years of my life away, and that's kind of a negative way to put it because it's a very positive thing in general. I didn't even know what I wanted to eat for lunch [let alone planning] for the next 10 years of my life. The second consideration is obviously the way that it throws you into the public. I mean, this is possibly the most public film of all time. People are so interested in every aspect of anything that you can tell them, giving them my shoe size would be big news for this kind of film.

AJ: With your character, young girls will have a good role model this summer.

NP: I am an actress. I think it's great. I think one of the most fun things about entertaining is making kids happy and this film is going to be fun for so many kids and it's one of the nicest aspects of this film for me.

AJ: Growing up, what movie character did you want to imitate the most?

NP: I guess the most glamorous for most or for many girls is Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. That image is so glamorous. Of course, it's all broken down at the end and it's very sad, but in terms of the way she carried herself and looked was always wonderful. I think that the [character] I grew up with the most was [in] Dirty Dancing. I was obsessed with Jennifer Grey. That's all I ever wanted to be, growing up, was Baby and dance with Patrick Swayze. That's my movie obsession growing up.

AJ: Can you talk a little bit about your character being a young queen?

NP: I think it's really interesting to have someone so young as a leader because there is such a purity of intention in a young person. It's not corrupted by power yet or any of those adult emotions of greed and control and things like that. She's just very idealistic and concerned for her people. She doesn't want to go to war. She wants to save her people. She doesn't want to hurt anything. It's naive in a way, but it's kind of beautiful at the same time to see someone who's so good and really just a kind person and wants to keep that in the face of this threat. But at the same time, that same innocence allows her to be taken advantage of a little bit and I think her whole persona of this mask with the whole costume and the makeup... it's like a guard that she puts up against herself so people think that she's really strong. She's 14 and she's responsible for all these people and they're in danger of being hurt. I really thought she was a great character because she's just so smart and in the end she gets it all together and she really keeps herself composed.

AJ: Are you going to continue your school work while you're acting in movies?

NP: I'm finishing high school right now. My first AP test [starts] tomorrow. I am freaking out a little. I'm very nervous. Basically, I'm very serious about school. I attend public school [with] a bunch of regular people. Everyone treats me normally and I go to school. I really don't miss very much school for work. I do [movies] over the summer. I usually miss a few weeks at the end and a few weeks at the beginning, but nothing major at all. I'm attending college in the fall, so education really hasn't been hurt at all by my work.

AJ: Have you decided where you are going to go?

NP: I have, but I'm not discussing it.

AJ: How did you get discovered for acting?

NP: It's a very strange story. It's kind of like the classic discovery. I was in a pizza parlor after dance class one day and there was a Revlon representative there with his father having pizza. They came over and he said, "We're doing a children's line [of] fragrances, would you be interested in modeling or anything?" I said, "I'd really be more interested in acting." So, he introduced me to acting agents and then I just started auditioning from then on.

AJ: There is so much talk about films being responsible for negatively influencing teenagers. What is your opinion on it?

NP: I think that film has a big influence on young people. I think that filmmakers need to take that responsibility and the widespread influence that they have into account when they are making their films. I don't think, obviously, they should interfere with the art of filmmaking. But you really choose what kind of things you want to put out there because in the end, human life is always more important. We're specifically referring to the violence and that kind of thing. I think films are influential but I really think that if you see a violent scene in a film and you go out and shoot someone, you've obviously got something wrong with you. You either have not been brought up the right way or you were born mentally unstable. So, if someone does have a mental problem, we [should] realize it before they kill other people. And if they don't have a mental problem and if they haven't been brought up the right way to give them what they need: to give them love and understanding and all that stuff that sounds cliche or sappy but it's really true. I mean, it's a very pressing issue for me. My school has had threats. People have been expelled and talked to by police at my high school. It's a real thing for me. This is not something I saw on the news. We have to be responsible. I think people need to stop pointing fingers at [TV] or music or clothing because it's people who do these things, not movies.

AJ: Can you give your reactions after watching Episode I?

NP: I think it's so much fun. I've seen it twice now and I was sitting with my mouth open the whole time. I was so amazed at all the visuals. I'm really proud of the movie. I was very surprised all the performances in it were really great. I mean, the actors are so wonderful. The second time there are so many more things [to see]. There's a Jedi meeting and I'm looking out the windows and there are birds in the background. They pay attention to the smallest details. These computer artists are so amazing, [they] completely blew me away. You've got to cause a ruckus or it's not the same experience. We were talking about how you ought to start screaming and standing up in the middle because it makes it so much fun. Every time someone came onscreen, we were yelping and whooping. You've got to get the energy of the film in the theater or else you're not having the full experience.

AJ: Had you ever seen a Star Wars film before?

NP: I had never seen it before I was offered the role. I watched the Star Wars films for the first time once I was offered the part.

AJ: Can you talk a little about your next filmed project?

NP: Anywhere But Here was strange because I have everything [in real-life]. I fight with my parents just like any other teenager does, but I have a very close relationship with both my parents, including my mother [in real-life], so I wasn't really used to it. She's a very irresponsible mother in the film, although she never abandons her daughter. She's not a very good mother figure. So, I had to use my imagination a lot and a lot things I'd seen on those awful TV shows where they'd bring on the mom and daughter who can't stand each other and they both end up crying and you just feel so horrible that this is happening on national television, and at the same time you can't stop watching and you feel like a pervert or something. I drew on that kind of stuff a lot because it's a function I haven't really experienced in my own life.

AJ: Can you tell us how you arrived at your character's voice and the motivation George Lucas gave you?

NP: When I first came to London, George suggested to me that I change my voice to make the role very different from things I had done in the past. So, he worked with me on totally deepening my voice and he also suggested that I change my accent, so I worked with a dialogue coach for about two days on finding some kind of weird, unidentifiable accent. We aimed at making it between European, British and American. We called it the Lauren Bacall, because it was just kind of that real tone or the Madonna.

AJ: Does it help for you to have your image everywhere wearing so much makeup? I don't think people would necessarily recognize you.

NP: Right. I'm really lucky because of that. Because [in] so much of the film, there's really heavy makeup. Also, I'm not a person who attracts a lot of attention when I walk down the street. I'm dressed in normal clothes. I'm short. I've got brown hair. People don't really look at me when I walk down the street, so I've really been able to keep a lot of anonymity and I hope it will remain that way.

AJ: What was it like working with Liam Neeson?

NP: Liam's wonderful. He is such a presence of being this strong, powerful guy, but in a very reserved way. He's kind of like a male version Amidala. I think he's very regal in his demeanor, but he's very reserved, too.

AJ: Was he intimidating to work with?

NP: He's huge. He's one of the biggest people I've ever seen in my life, but he's not intimidating at all because he's just such a warm, nice person... a daddy kind of figure.