Natalie Portman Does Elle Magazine

When asked whether or not Natalie Portman saw “The Other Boleyn Girl” as a “classic cautionary tale about female ambition” during her latest interview with Elle Magazine, the 26-year-old actress said:

“That’s so interesting, because I really saw it as a cautionary tale about capitalism. All of the characters who subscribe to these values of rising up and gaining power and who will step on anyone to get there are punished.”

Sometimes I wonder why Natalie has to make everything about politics, but then I remember Paris Hilton is still popular and suddenly I find myself loving every single word that comes out of Natalie’s educated mouth.

For more interview snippets, click here.

More from the interview after the jump!

ELLE: Your recent film, “The Other Boleyn Girl”, strikes me as a classic cautionary tale about female ambition. Your character, the notorious Anne, is punished with rape, humiliation, exile, and ultimately execution for being cunning and opportunistic. Her “golden sister” Mary [played by Scarlett Johansson] wants nothing more than a simple country life and is content to accept whatever fate her father, husband, uncle, and king devise for her—and she gets to live happily ever after.

NATALIE PORTMAN: That’s so interesting, because I really saw it as a cautionary tale about capitalism. All of the characters who subscribe to these values of rising up and gaining power and who will step on anyone to get there are punished. Anne is certainly the most forward about it, but she is following her family’s values. She wants to impress her father even though he betrays her, whereas Mary thinks there’s something sick about this world and removes herself from it. I think it’s very different to be ambitious and to be ruthlessly ambitious, which Anne certainly is in the movie. In reality, an argument can be made that Anne Boleyn was witch-hunted because she had so much power.

ELLE: Do you see any of these dynamics at play in the way Americans have responded to Hillary Clinton‘s campaign? She’s a woman with boundless aspirations who is clearly and necessarily calculating in her pursuit of her agenda, and I think we’re still extremely uncomfortable with that kind of overt female striving.

NP: A lot of the stuff people say about her, I hear it and my stomach falls because it’s so sexist. You ask people why they don’t like her and it’s because her husband cheated on her! That was obviously not her choice. She’s so much more polished and experienced than anyone else. Last night, a friend, a social worker in L.A. who works with underprivileged kids, was saying how these girls who have never been interested in politics before are so excited that a woman might be president. I mean, look how many women are in government…Hillary’s one of, what, [a handful of] female senators?

I also like Obama. I even like McCain. I disagree with his war stance—which is a really big deal—but I think he’s a very moral person. I met him and Hillary on the same day, actually, when I went to Washington with Finca [a nonprofit that gives loans to businesswomen in developing countries]. Hillary was by far the smartest person I met that day. Just totally focused, and knew more about the issues than anyone else, and was so able to go from one thing to the other.

ELLE: How have people responded to your own independence and ambition? Has that been uncomplicated for you?

NP: It’s definitely complicated. I bury it a lot, which is a very common woman thing to do. They say women often preface their statements with “This might sound stupid, but…” It sort of tempers what you are going to say. It takes the edge off so you can still be seen as ladylike. I think I have a lot of that in me. I’m very nonconfrontational; I’m definitely a pleaser.

ELLE: But you also mean business. You’ve just started your own production company.

NP: It is proactive. It gives you more control over creating things, as opposed to having to get hired every single time. After you’ve worked for so long it’s kind of annoying to have to be dependent in that way. With acting, getting work can be very passive. You’re sort of subject to the whims and fashions of your moment. I’ve been working 15 years, and I know some years I get everything first and some years I read only uninteresting parts. I didn’t want to just be at the mercy of whoever is making those decisions. Having your own company is a nice way to concentrate your ideas and make the kinds of movies you want to see.

And I was so inspired by Jeff Skoll [head of Participant Productions, a backer of handsomecharlie films, which makes movies that raise awareness around an issue, such as "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Charlie Wilson's War"]. I’m excited by the idea of film as a social-inspiration medium. I think it’s an act of social empathy to care about another person’s story, and it makes sense to have this whole infrastructure around that idea.

ELLE: You‘ve made two short films and are writing your first feature, which you plan to direct. Do you feel this is a departure, or will you be using the same skills you employ when you act?

NP: Writing is like acting in that mentally you become all of the characters. You have to consider, What would they do now? What would they think now? You have to go through their progression. In terms of directing, it took working with enough people to think: Okay, if they can do it, I can do it. You start realizing your own level of experience when you work with people who aren’t as experienced. I sometimes forget that I’ve been on a lot more movie sets than even some of the most well-known directors.

ELLE: Tell me about playing a bleached-blond gambling addict in this month’s “My Blueberry Nights”, Wong Kar Wai‘s first English-language feature. It was surprising to see you in a trashy outfit with a handful of cards.

NP: I got to have a poker coach! Jodie Foster was slated to play the role, but she had to drop out. I think it shows such imagination that he cast me, because of the age range—to say, Okay, how about Natalie Portman instead?

ELLE: But then, just like Foster, you emerged as a precocious child and have been developing into something very rare in Holly­wood: A woman who projects intelligence and power and makes movies on her own terms.

NP: I hope so.