This is the NP.com quote collection. We’ve attempted to make this as objective as possible, but we’re all Natalie fans for different reasons. Hopefully, these will strike at your heart, send a shiver down your spine, or tickle your funny bone. Or you could send your favourites along to Mart.
Quotes by Natalie
[On being the only “kid” in the cast of Beautiful Girls] “The adults in this movie weren’t really that adult. Have you interviewed Michael [Rapaport] yet?”
– Source Unknown
[Her new years resolution for 1997] “Just to be a good student and be a good kid.”
– Source Unknown
“Sometimes I think people who are unattractive have it easier.”
– Source Unknown
[Referring to her future career indecisiveness] “But I’m a Gemini, so I change my mind every day.”
– Source Unknown
“I’m going to college. I don’t care if it ruins my career. I’d rather be smart than a movie star.”
– USA Today (USA) – Novemeber, 1994
[On getting out of tech class to be on the Late Show]
“I was about to drill a hole in my wood, and I was really scared, and I’m holding it, and they’re like “Will Natalie Portman please come to the front office for early dismissal.” And I went ‘YES!!'”
– The Late Show (USA) – November, 1994
“Natalie: When I was in nursery school, the teachers asked me, y’know, ‘what does your Dad do for a living?’
Dave Letterman: Yeah.
Natalie: So I said “he helps women get pregnant!” [Giggles] They called my Mom and they were like, ‘what EXACTLY does your husband do?'” [Laughs]
– The Late Show (USA) – November, 1994
“The best part about being friends with your parents is that no matter what you do, they have to keep loving you.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – February, 1995
“And sometimes just watching a person doing the things they would only do at home lets you know who they really are—like picking their nose. That’s when you know someone is really comfortable around you.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – February, 1995
“I was this really bossy five-year-old, and I would be like, “You stand here, and you stand here, and you sing,” or, “I’ll sing and you just lip it.” [She throws her head back and laughs.] I was a really bossy kid, you know”
– Venice (USA) – July, 1995
[Talking about which scenes in Leon were hard to do]
“Well, some of the sexy scenes were hard because I’m not that kind of person. I’m not the kind of person that would say, “He’s my lover.” That was so hard for me, especially when everyone was standing around watching and my mom’s there”
– Venice (USA) – July, 1995
“I think school is so much harder than real life. People are so much more accepting when they are adults.”
– Premiere (UK) – July, 1995
“Danny [Aiello—co-star in The Professional] told me ‘Don’t do television’.”
– Premiere (UK) – July, 1995
“After seeing Apollo 13, what I really want to be is an astronaut. I’m dying to go to space camp next summer!”
– Seventeen (USA) – November, 1995
“My father has a general rule. He says if I haven’t done it in real life I shouldn’t do it on-screen.”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – 1996
“I love milk so much! I make a point of drinking a glass of milk every day. So now anyone who did those milk ads with the milk moustaches, they’re my heroes.”
– Detour (USA) – January, 1996
[Describing selecting a career] “You have to accept something that when you wake up in the morning, makes you feel good, just knowing you’re gonna go into work and help someone.”
– Detour (USA) – January, 1996
“I am more a teenager than anyone else I know. One minute I feel really adult and the next minute I say, ‘Let’s play hide-and-seek.'”
– Who Weekly (USA) – January, 1996
“So me and my friends we rented this movie called Threesome. And, you know, it’s appropriately named and whatever, and there’s this scene where they… get together. And her mom came in right as that scene came on. So my friend jumped up and she’s like, this isn’t Reality Bites! And she got it out, she’s like, damn Blockbuster! God!”
– The Late Show (USA) – February, 1996
“I don’t know if I could live with acting my whole life because there are such huge periods between films. I see these 20-year-old actors who do nothing but smoke cigarettes and go to clubs every
night while they wait for their next part, and I couldn’t stand living that way.”
– LA Times (USA) – February, 1996
“Acting probably is making me grow up faster than I normally would because I’m around adults so much of the time. I’m friends with people much older than me, but they’re all quite intent on maintaining my innocence. Yesterday Ted Demme [director of Beautiful Girls] told me that if anyone ever did anything bad to me, I’d have his 20 big brothers rush to my rescue.”
– LA Times (USA) – February, 1996
“There’s always pressure, from other people and yourself. If you’re happy with the looks you’re born with, then what are you going to do your whole life?. We keep thinking up new things and finding better ways of doing things because we’re not happy with what we’re given.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“Cute is when your personality shines through your looks. Like, when you see someone’s personality in the way they walk and you
just feel like hugging them every time you see them.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
[Commenting on The Professional] “I didn’t feel exploited at all. I understood everything I was doing. It wasn’t like some dirty old man was tricking me into something.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“I don’t love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“Where I live, nobody who’s fourteen is having sex and doing major drugs. And I think if you see it in the movies, you may be influenced by it. I think it’s so important to preserve your innocence.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“My school is like the ‘Clueless’ pop-culture school.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“You can’t the word enema around my mom because she had to have one when she was pregnant with me in Israel. The word coconut makes me uncomfortable. There are some beautiful words, though. For exmaple, I just love the way clutter sounds.”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – March, 1996
“When I was 7 years old, I put on shows for everyone at my grandpa’s funeral. I was always the little entertainer.”
– Sassy (USA) – March, 1996
“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.”
– Sassy (USA) – March, 1996
[Explaining her vegitarianism] “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 ate meat again.”
– Sassy (USA) – March, 1996
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in love, I’m sure I will be some day. I’ve had enormous crushes, although I’ve never been into the Brad Pitt thing.”
– Harpers & Queen (USA) – October, 1996
“It’s always strange being a kid on the set, because you’re treated like an equal when you’re working. But then when you break, the
other actors go back to their trailers to take naps and drink beer, and I have to, like, go do school.”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – October, 1996
[In reference to her mother making vegetarian meals for her on Thanksgiving]
“…she makes vegetarian stuffing because generally, y’know stuffing, they like, stuff it up the turkey’s butt and, like, let the juices all flow in.”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – November, 1996
[Talking about her Everyone Says I Love you audition]
“He asked me three questions like, ‘Where do you live? How old are you? Are you free for the fall?'”
– Neon (USA) – February, 1997
[Talking about her Romeo and Juliet audition]
“They said it looked like Leonardo was molesting me when we kissed. It was really disappointing, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the movie and have it look wrong. If I was in the film, I would have wanted it to be perfect.”
– Neon (USA) – February, 1997
“I’d do a kids’ movie if it was realistic, but those hunky-dory tales are stupid sometimes.They make kids with real lives feel they are not as happy.”
– Movie Magazine (USA) – February, 1997
[On playing in Ruthless]”I kept laughing on stage because I was having so much fun with this other girl: She would cross her eyes at me on stage, and I’d start laughing, and people would be like, Natalie, you’re not supposed to laugh on stage.”
– Boston Magazine (USA) – October, 1997
“I speak fluent Hebrew and even dream in Hebrew when we visit there, once or twice a year”
– W (USA) – November, 1997
“When a guy tells me I’m cute, it’s not something desirable. Cute is more like what you want your pet to be”
– Beyond Beauty (USA) – November, 1997
“I don’t want to sound superficial, but when I go see a movie myself, I’d rather look at Tom Cruise than some shmo with a beer belly”
– Time Out New York (USA) – November, 1997
[Talking about her Star Wars action figure] “In the year 2000, someone is going to get me as a Christmas present”
– Time Out New York (USA) – November, 1997
[Talking about getting a 100 score for a school government paper] “I’m a little obsessive-compulsive”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – May, 1999
“I would never say someone else is bad because they do something, but for myself, I’m kind of conservative. I’ve never tried smoking, I don’t drink, I’ve never tried any drugs. I don’t condemn people who do; I’ve just never wanted to. I don’t really like high-school parties. My closest friends are very straight, compared with a lot of other kids. It’s definitely odd”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – May, 1999
“People think the film industry is going to corrupt me, but I feel like it’s kept me more innocent, in a way. I wasn’t really home when my friends were trying pot for the first time. I was always around adults who wouldn’t smoke or curse or do anything like that around me. I don’t do things that are dangerous to myself. I don’t want to hurt myself”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – May, 1999
“Cutting out gelatin was hard for me—giving up Gummy Worms and Jell-O. I hated that!”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – May, 1999
“I’m not going to my senior prom. Boys want to go to the prom with someone that they can fool around with”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – May, 1999
“The only annoying thing is when people stare at me. I know it’s part of the thing, so I’m trying to get over it, but it’s the weirdest feeling. I just feel like it’s a really rude thing to do. I’m not a person who’s ever trying to attract attention. Usually, I’m OK because I’m short and I’m brown-haired and I kind of blend in, but it’s very weird”
– Star Wars Insider (USA) – May, 1999
“Now if you ask me to get up in front of people and do anything like that I get so embarrassed. I’m humiliated if I have to speak in front of the class”
– Star Wars Insider (USA) – May, 1999
“I’m so obsessed with magazines. You don’t understand—I love magazines. We go to the book store and I am like a magnet. I’m drawn to them. We go to Borders and my friends are straight to the music, but I go straight to the magazines, and I can stay there for an hour just reading everything”
– Star Wars Insider (USA) – May, 1999
“I can sleep a whole day. If no one woke me up, I would sleep for 24 hours. I think it’s a combination of my age and my appreciation for sleep. Sleep is so wonderful. Sometimes you can oversleep and feel like you’ve waster your time, but I think it’s one of the bestways to spend your time.”
– Star Wars Insider (USA) – May, 1999
[Talking about appearing in the gossip columns] “I’m just as bad as anyone else, I love reading that stuff. And if it makes someone’s day a little happier? I really couldn’t care less”
– Premiere (UK) – May, 1999
[On her Star Wars Action figure] “It’s very strange to know that little kids somewhere will be playing with me”
– TV Guide (USA) – May, 1999
[On being accepted by Harvard & Yale] “I kind of had the feeling that whether I did well or not, I would have gotten in, it was kind of disappointing, because I worked so hard in school. I don’t feel like I got in just by being an actor. I don’t feel like I stole a space away from someone who really deserved it. I feel like I’ll be able to live up to the level of the school”
– TV Guide (USA) – May, 1999
“It would be very strange to be, like, a lawyer or a doctor, after you’ve been in Star Wars”
– TV Guide Online (USA) – May, 1999
[About the Star Wars big hair pieces] “You’d have to go to the bathroom and you could get, you know, out of your clothes really easily so… you know, 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, you know?”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 1999
[On delaying driver ed due to Anne Frank] “I was like the grandma in the car sitting knitting in the corner”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 1999
“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 forth, 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 umm, 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.. that makes you feel better—you already feel like stupid enough that you’re, you know, taking an hour to park and it’s kind of like ‘Aww, isn’t that cute!’ and you’re just like ‘Shut up!'”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 1999
“I’m, I’m a bi, tri-daily tweezer”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 1999
“I used to butcher my Barbies. I would draw hearts on their cheeks. I would give them haircuts and I would keep going because it would be uneven and they would be left bald”
– USA Today (USA) – May, 1999
“There’s so much else to do in the world. To just be interested in doing films would limit my life.”
– Teen Tribute Magazine (USA) – June, 1999
[Commenting on Anne Frank] “Dying without leaving a mark and never finding love or happiness became more normal, but also more trivial for me because I had the privilege of life.”
– Time (USA) – June, 1999
“I’m a technological moron. I have, I have problems with like.. the television”
– Flicks (USA) – June, 1999
“Ninety per cent of how you learn is watching great people. When you are surrounded by good actors it lifts your performance”
– Vogue (Australia) – July, 1999
“I was really into dancing, taking six classes a week, and my real dream was to be in a Broadway show”
– Vogue (Australia) – July, 1999
[About her Star Wars audition] “I’ve seen my audition tape and I was HIDEOUS”
– The Movie Chart Show (UK) – July, 1999
“I’ve always tried to separate my looks from all the other aspects of myself. I think girls are taught so much to focus on their looks that they tend to have their personality and intelligence develop slower than boys”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“I was really popular up until 13, really outgoing and bossy, and never worried about seeming it”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“I came back from shooting Leon, and no one would talk to me. Everyone kept saying, ‘Oh you think you’re such a hot-shot.’ I had no friends. It was the worst year of my life”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“I make an extra point of not seeming arrogant. I used to be the first one to get on stage at school and sing, and now… you couldn’t pay me to do that.”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“Oh God, I was so awful in that. My agents said, ‘Well, you just don’t turn down Woody Allen.’ But I was so wrong because there was so much improvisation and I just couldn’t do it.”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“My parents have been very good at separating that. They don’t let me use any of my earnings. They pay for everything in my life. They’ll pay for college for me. They want to feel like they’re still taking care of me”
– The Daily Telegraph (UK) – July, 1999
“I can totally imagine myself not being an actress, but it’s a little stranger now that I’ve started to get more recognition. If I want to be a doctor, it will be weird for my patients to think, ‘Oh, my doctor’s the mother of Princess Leia.'”
– Vogue (UK) – August, 1999
[On Patrick Swayze] “I think I became an actress just so there would be a possibility I might meet him one day — because he’s just, like, so amazing!”
– Dolly (Australia) – August, 1999
“I really hate being self-conscious—and being conscious of being self-conscious”
– Dolly (Australia) – August, 1999
“Being an ‘old soul’ means that you have knowledge that you wouldn’t necessarily have at your age. And knowing that, I guess that means that I am one”
– Dolly (Australia) – August, 1999
“I don’t feel like being naked in a movie; there are so many weirdos out there that might think of something”
– Aftonbladet (Sweden) – August, 1999
[On believing God] “Well… I’m more spiritual than religious. I believe there is a power and the instinct and intuition that runs our life. I think one should be like a Jedi and follow one’s instinct”
– Aftonbladet (Sweden) – August, 1999
[What Natalie looks for in a boyfriend] “Someone who I can talk to, and, obviously who is going to treat me well. So smart, funny, and a good person are the main qualifications”
– You (UK) – September, 1999
“I couldn’t be anorexic because I like food too much, and I couldn’t be bulimic because I hate throwing up too much”
– You (UK) – September, 1999
[Why she is so mature] “I’m really an 85-year-old midget”
– You (UK) – September, 1999
[About reading articles about herself] “I read everything. I’m too interested in what people think. It’s like, if you don’t know people are talking about you, it’s fine, but if you know that they’re talking about you, you want to know what they’re saying”
– Jane (USA) – September, 1999
“I am not a shy person. But I’m very self-conscious and very worried about what other people are thinking”
– Interview Magazine (USA) – October, 1999
[Refering to Anywhere But Here] “In the original script there was a sex scene, and I want to emphasize that I don’t have any problems with sex scenes on film, I’m not into censorship, but I just wasn’t prepared to do the scene at that point in my life”
– Ottawa Citizen (Canada) – October, 1999
“Someone told me that they saw me on a pair of little boys underwear, but I haven’t seen them yet”
– Univercity Magazine (USA) – November, 1999
“I came home feeling stressed out thinking ‘I’ve got too much work to do,’ so instead of sitting down and doing it I said, ‘I’m gonna bake.’ [laughs] So I made a pie.”
– Univercity Magazine (USA) – November, 1999
“I’m trying to grow into a complete, well-rounded person, and I really am interested in learning and I’d feel really stupid [laughs] if I stopped after high school”
– Seventeen (USA) – November, 1999
“Going to a party, for me, is as much a learning experience as, you know, sitting in a lecture”
– Seventeen (USA) – November, 1999
“Just sitting in a room until 4 a.m. and listening to some other kids talk about what they have done in their lives is just the greatest learning experience I have ever had.”
– Seventeen (USA) – November, 1999
[On set at Where the Heart is] “I’m not waif-thin but I’m small, so they make me wear fake boobs. Otherwise they say I look boyish”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“When I was a kid, I was a ridiculous reader—a book every day or two. Kids’ books, not classics”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“It’s hard for me to raise my voice. When I’m angry, I cry. But I can’t do that in front of someone. I go to the bathroom and cry privately. The only hint that I’m dramatic is that I cry at movies. ‘My Girl’ kills me. I cried at ‘The Sixth Sense’. Who cries at that?”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“I get embarrassed when my parents dance. I’m always telling them, ‘Lower your voice.'”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“After the Star Wars premiere, my dad was so smitten by Natasha Richardson, I was like, ‘Dad, stop. You’re embarrassing me. Mommy’s here. Liam is next to you. And he’s like five times your size”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“I’m always on the phone because I’m usually not with the people I want to be with.”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“Use Starbucks mints for every occasion—they’re the strongest”
– Mademoiselle (USA) – November, 1999
“Being smart and studying is so dorky and is seen as being nerdy in this country, so I think it is kind of cool for girls to see someone like me, who is really interested in school. It’s okay to be a studying dork, you don’t have to be out partying all the time”
– Brntwd (USA) – November, 1999
“Awards are so unnecessary, because I think we get so much out of our work just by doing it. The work is a reward in itself”
– Brntwd (USA) – November, 1999
“It scares me to think that one day I’m not going to be in school anymore.”
– Your Time (USA) – November, 1999
[On her Father throwing a surprise party] “He took my phone book and called everyone in it. Some were people I hadn’t seen in ages, but everyone came or called. I was mortified”
– Calgary Sun (Canada) – November, 1999
“I’m just trying to be true to who I am and not let anyone define me except for myself, I’m not trying to have a magazine call me the ‘It Girl.'”
– CNN.com (USA) – November, 1999
“I think probably people view me as a goody-goody, which isn’t necessarily true. I mean, I’m a human being. I’m not an angel”
– CNN.com (USA) – November, 1999
“I don’t really know if acting would have ultimately become my passion as an adult, or if there’s something else I would have found had I not been in the pizza shop. That’s what college is helping me investigate”
– CNN.com (USA) – November, 1999
“Dave Letterman: Now, what kind of stuff do you do in first year Chemistry?
Natalie: Umm, you know… [laughs] I dunno! We’ll do you know, basic chemistry things, we blow things up and you know… [Reacting to the “blow things up comment,” Dave gives a perplexed look towards the audience, who react by laughing] Umm… My professors are gonna like, kill me when I get back.”
– David Letterman (USA) – November, 1999
[On her first love scene] “I almost felt whorish, being told what to do in a sexual way”
– Los Angeles Daily News (USA) – November, 1999
“I’m a human being. I’m not an angel”
– MSNBC.com (USA) – November, 1999
“I’m not trying to have a split life here. In no way am I trying to be two different people. I’m not Superman – I’m the same person. I don’t act differently when I’m in my different worlds”
– MSNBC.com (USA) – November, 1999
“I think it’s kind of comforting to people to see that I have a complete life outside of acting.”
– MSNBC.com (USA) – November, 1999
“I didn’t have this undying need to be an actress. I didn’t have that fire within me ever – at any point. And still, I don’t think I have that within me”
– MSNBC.com (USA) – November, 1999
“Acting is very emotional and you really kind of have to forget your intellect sometimes just to become part of the character. You have to become just completely unconscious of yourself, to move into some other state”
– Lifestyles (USA) – December, 1999
“When you stay out all night, you realize the next day—when you’re dead tired—why your parents had curfews for you”
– drdrew.com (USA) – December, 1999
“I’m more interested in being a complete person and learning a lot more. I want to get to the point where I’m happy with myself and have made the most of myself as a human being”
– Ottawa Citizen (Canada) – December, 1999
“I want to fall in love. I’m waiting for it all to happen”
– Popcorn (UK) – December, 1999
“I’m not very shy. And people think I’m serious. I come off as very serious, but I’m not. I know how to have a good time. I know how to party”
– Popcorn (UK) – December, 1999
[Refering to Anywhere But Here] “In retrospect, seeing how great it is, I’d probably do the nude scene, now”
– Biography (USA) – January, 2000
[Asked about securing a love life] “A personal life is something I would really like to have at college, right now,” she answers with a devilish grin. “I keep saying to myself, ‘If I didn’t have all this work, college would be paradise”
– Biography (USA) – January, 2000
“I’ve just started college and my mum cried everyday this summer”
– J17 (UK) – January, 2000
“I was walking out and someone shouted: ‘Oh, my God, it’s Winona Ryder!’ I was like: ‘I don’t look like her!'”
– J17 (UK) – January, 2000
“I’ve wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, a vet – these are things I’ve said in interviews. Before that, I wanted to be a mermaid and a fairy”
– J17 (UK) – January, 2000
“I was like a two-headed little circus freak”
– Pavement (New Zealand) – February, 2000
“I’m fulfilling my dream now by getting an education and learning all these amazing things and finding new areas that fascinate me”
– Pavement (New Zealand) – February, 2000
“I’ve never had anything traumatic happen to me in my life, yet I feel like I’ve experienced the same depth of pain that someone that might have lost a parent has”
– Pavement (New Zealand) – February, 2000
“I am not someone who sacrifice all for the cinema, my life will be always more important”
– La Libre Belgique (Belgium) – February, 2000
“Star Wars hasn’t changed my life at all”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2000
“I value my private life and security way more than getting parts by flashing my boobs on some magazine or being a sex symbol in films”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2000
“I think it’s really difficult to be in a relationship when pretty much every role for females has to do with some sort of love scene, especially as you get older”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2000
“I don’t know if I want my kids to be, like, the kids of someone famous, because I know people like that and I think it’s much harder for them to deal with defining themselves”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2000
[On wearing the pregnancy pad] “It was fun! It certainly freaked my mom out the first time she saw it”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2000
“I really hadn’t had experience with children ’cause I’m an only child and really didn’t baby-sit very much growing up”
– Hollywood.com (USA) – April, 2000
“Most of my friends, as soon as we get around babies we’re like, ‘We want one!’ And it just seems so much easier when you get to hold it and it’s all cute and cuddly, and not crying in the middle of the night and need to be diapered and all of that”
– Hollywood.com (USA) – April, 2000
“The way we dealt with the heat was just putting ice packs wherever we could hide them. We would put them in our clothes, inside our boobs, we would freeze our boobs, you know, ’cause you could take them out.”
– Access Hollywood (USA) – April, 2000
“There’s a point in your life where you’re disillusioned and where you go from being a naive person who will trust basically anyone… to the realization that not everyone is good and not everyone is well-intentioned. Then it becomes your decision how to deal with that—whether to become bitter and cynical right off or whether to become a good person and just be more cautious in seeing who’s trustworthy and who isn’t. I think that’s the real maturation that everyone goes through—and that I went through recently—and I think it’s the turning point in everyone’s life”
– Ottawa Citizen (Canada) – April, 2000
“I think you can be smart without going to college. I just think that I couldn’t be”
– National Post (USA) – April, 2000
“I loved school so much that most of my classmates considered me a dork”
– Calgary Sun (Canada) – April, 2000
“I had never been to a Wal-Mart, and I fell in love with it. It’s the greatest place because you could certainly live there.”
– Chicago Sun Times (USA) – April, 2000
“I don’t want to walk around embarrassed, thinking, `Oh, that boy I like from algebra class can now watch me have sex on screen.’ I don’t want strangers leering at me like they know something”
– Chicago Sun Times (USA) – April, 2000
“Hanging out on the `Star Wars’ set will make a great essay when I go back to school”
– Chicago Sun Times (USA) – April, 2000
“I love working in my room when everyone’s asleep. No one calls or emails when you’re up at 2 in the morning”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
[On allegedly having a fake ID to enter a Moby concert] “Why would I be stupid and have a fake ID? That’s just outrageous”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
“There are moments when I think, Everyone is evil!”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
“I just felt so weird being told to kiss someone I didn’t want to kiss. I almost felt whorish, being told what to do in a sexual way”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
“Giving birth is such a miracle. You can learn about it, you can hear about it, you can understand it, but when you see it, it’s so amazing”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
“It would probably be difficult, because of my current occupation, to become a clinical psychologist, but I could certainly do research”
– E Online (USA) – April, 2000
“It’s so limiting to say that acting is ‘it’ in my life when there are so many other opportunities”
– Toronto Sun (Canada) – April, 2000
“I started out the year, you know, I’m going to clean once a week, I’m going to do my laundry, I’m going to go grocery shopping, and like two weeks later… No way, I’ve got like, dustballs the size of my head floating around… I’ve got like piles of laundry”
– David Letterman (USA) – April, 2000
“My wildest recent day was, I had a 25-page paper due, and I was actively, you know, typing away, and it’s due in about five minutes, I go to print it out, and when it prints out there’s no margins on the paper. So, I check my margins and they were 0.3 inches, which is not very much. So I changed it to one inch, and it turned out to be 35 pages. So this is like, the craziest, wackiest thing I’ve done in recent times. So I’m like ‘Oh no, I’ve got ten pages extra’, so I, you know, decreased font size and spacing and…”
– David Letterman (USA) – April, 2000
“I don’t really know what I’m gonna do past next week”
– David Letterman (USA) – April, 2000
[on why she is studying Psychology] “I think that psychology certainly helps in understanding people’s motivations — why people do what they do”
– Icast.com (USA) – May, 2000
“Being Queen Amidala is like the stupidest accomplishment”
– See (USA) – June, 2000
[On selecting her roles] “I just pick what I like best. I get opinions from my manager and my parents, but often it’s just that I feel it. I don’t have a map that I’m trying to follow to get to the gold”
– IMDB.com (USA) – August, 2000
“If you’re an actress or a musician, everyone thinks you’re hot”
– IMDB.com (USA) – August, 2000
“I think that perhaps no one would think I was ever cute if I weren’t an actress. If we were going to a place, they would say the ‘plain girl with brown hair is going to come over'”
– IMDB.com (USA) – August, 2000
“When people stare at me, I stare back at them, and I know it’s not the nicest thing to do. It’s just that I want them to understand how uncomfortable it is to be stared at. It’s like you don’t exist, you lose your whole life as a private person, and you’re supposed to be OK with it. It gets me really upset and people don’t realise you have a life, you are a human being outside”
– IMDB.com (USA) – August, 2000
“Someone asked to take a picture and I said no so they got mad at me! I’m not a Mickey Mouse… ”
– IMDB.com (USA) – August, 2000
“I know how to make myself sound really smart and impress people but a lot of it is hollow. I’m a 19-year-old girl, I’m not that much of an interesting person yet”
– The Sunday Telegraph (Australia) – August, 2000
“I don’t really like getting recognised; it makes me very uncomfortable getting stared at”
– theage.com.au (Australia) – September, 2000
“I used to have a hundred friends and ten close ones, now it’s like I’ve got five really good friends who really know me”
– Sain Unlimited (USA) – September, 2000
“When I was younger I thought ‘I’m gonna change the world!'”
– Sain Unlimited (USA) – September, 2000
“I think motherhood is the greatest thing I can aspire to”
– Sain Unlimited (USA) – September, 2000
“I think I’m very similar to my parents; I think most kids are”
– Culture (USA) – November, 2000
“I just think Joe Schmo’s more likely to be either intimidated by me or to admire me”
– Culture (USA) – November, 2000
“I’m pretty normal. I go out, I party, I go to movies, I hang with my friends. My friends and I are going to work for this elderly gentleman in our town: we’re going to help organise his books, so that should be fun”
– Culture (USA) – November, 2000
“It’s so weird when someone thinks that because they’re famous and you’re famous, they can call you or hug you when they see you. Not to be rude, but if I don’t know you, I’m not going to be your best friend on our first meeting”
– Marie Claire (UK) – November, 2000
[on meeting Moby] “He told me later that he didn’t recognize me, he just thought I was cute. When I left, we exchanged fax numbers and faxed five-page letters every day for two or three weeks”
– Marie Claire (UK) – November, 2000
“I love Moby, but it’s more intense than a romance. It’s a really good friendship. A soul connection”
– Marie Claire (UK) – November, 2000
[On cigarette smoke] “It’s my biggest pet peeve. Especially if it’s a warm day”
– Marie Claire (UK) – November, 2000
“I think of everything as a life experience. If I do the film then that is my experience, but if I don’t do a film that is just as much an experience for me”
– Empire (UK) – December, 2000
“I think I represent myself in a serious way because I’m not a flake and I don’t want people to think that I am. But people have this impression of me. With my friends I’m a little baby”
– Empire (UK) – December, 2000
“I was always a show-off when I was little. I loved being the little baby on that film set”
– Empire (UK) – December, 2000
“I don’t want people to wag me around like a Mickey Mouse doll”
– Empire (UK) – December, 2000
[Talking about Woody Allen] “My favourite director is the one that says I am horrible”
– Empire (UK) – December, 2000
“I wouldn’t say I’m a good-goody, but I’ve never smoked, I don’t drink and I’ve never tried drugs. Still, I don’t condemn people who do”
– Jump (USA) – January, 2001
“I’m always on the phone because I’m usually not able to be with the people I want to be with”
– Jump (USA) – January, 2001
“I think the New York Public Library is so, so amazing. It’s literally the coolest place”
– New York Magazine (USA) – June, 2001
“I sort of think I’ll never again achieve the performances of my early films”
– Nylon (USA) – August, 2001
“I’m very critical of myself. You become so much more self-conscious as you get older, and that’s your worst enemy as an actor”
– Nylon (USA) – August, 2001
“Some people are just gross. Like I remember reading a review of The Professional where the writer started describing my breast buds! I was just like, This is disgusting”
– Nylon (USA) – August, 2001
“I wish I could stay in school and act forever. I really like the combination”
– Nylon (USA) – August, 2001
[On getting the professional script] “When I got the part, they gave me a script to take home. I remember crying when I read it. I was so excited”
– Nylon (USA) – August, 2001
[On Star Wars] “This is my turn to be a revealing-outift girl”
– Vanity Fair (USA) – March, 2002
“I like more Amélie-type fantasy than scary-monster-type fantasy”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2002
“I always get, like a blow-dryer. Check out my weapons–it totally looks like I just came from doing my hair”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2002
“After taking 10 college English classes now, I start looking for different things in scripts, and it’s somewhat depressing not to find them”
– Entertainment Weekly (USA) – April, 2002
“My parents have always stressed education over success, over money – over everything”
– Night and Day (UK) – April, 2002
“I mean, I’m 20, there’s, like, no way I can be interesting enough to talk about myself all day long”
– Sunday Times Magazine (UK) – April, 2002
“There came a point, in my first year at college, when it was just really difficult, I realised there were two me’s. There was the me that went to school and was totally normal. That me wouldn’t let anyone talk about acting. If anyone even brought it up, I would go completely quiet and do this whole embarrassed thing and be really awkward about it. And then there was the me that would go out and be Hollywood Girl and love it – love dressing up and getting all made up and going out and having everyone looking at me. And it was really hard to reconcile the two me’s, because all of a sudden I was moving into adulthood and the two lives were merging and I didn’t know what to do. It even made me hate one part of myself when I was the other. I didn’t want to be the “actress girl’ at school because I knew that people would resent me, and I wanted to be just like the other kids. And I didn’t want to be different when I was in Hollywood, either”
– Sunday Times Magazine (UK) – April, 2002
“What I am thinking about now is how I am naturally and how I want to be. What is natural to me, what should I accept about myself and what it is not dishonest to try to change.”
– Sunday Times Magazine (UK) – April, 2002
[On fashion] “I so appreciate as an art, and I love looking at clothes, but in terms of going out and buying the stuff, I try not to get too sucked into the moment”
– Vogue (USA) – May, 2002
“I just think hands are so expressive and beautiful”
– Vogue (USA) – May, 2002
“My dad had a beat-up Chevy; my mom had a beat-up Oldsmobile. My parents skimped on a big house and fancy car, but we saw every play, and we always traveled”
– Vogue (USA) – May, 2002
“It’s hard to sleep in your old bed from High School”
– Vogue (USA) – May, 2002
“Hayden’s a very sexy guy and I loved working with him”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“I never want to make any general statement about myself as I change my mind every single day”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“The worst thing is the waiters getting my orders wrong! They get flustered and don’t bring you what you ordered, which is kind of funny”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“Flying in private small planes is something I really hate. That scares me a lot. I’ve been in a bunch of four-seaters which I really, really don’t like”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“I loved that Mexican film, Y Tu Mamá También. It was so sexy and it made me want to be those people and find that beach”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“I have nice ears. I have no lobes, which was disappointing for a while, but I’ve gotten over it and learned to love them. Being lobeless isn’t the end of the world”
– IMDB.com (USA) – May, 2002
“As ridiculous as it is. I know many more people more qualified than I am to be a role model! I am in a position to be a role model. More people see me and hear me and listen to my words than, for example, my professors at school… I have this kind of stage where people will listen to me.”
– Dreamwatch (UK) – May, 2002
[On blue-screen acting] “It’s really challenging for your imagination and puts you back in a pretty childlike state. It was wonderful, in a way; it’s sort of the purest form of acting”
– Los Angeles Daily News (USA) – May, 2002
[On her Harvard experience] “It’s been incredible, I really feel like I know so much more about myself now, and that I’ve also learned how to keep asking questions that will lead me closer to myself and to my understanding of the way things are and the way things should be, and how to reconcile those two”
– Los Angeles Daily News (USA) – May, 2002
[on future projects] “I want something that will stimulate me as much as the books I’m reading at school … There’s got to be some sort of magic and craft that goes into making it”
– CNN.com (USA) – May, 2002
[On the Israel situation] “Every time you hear about something it’s like having one of your limbs ripped out, it’s your family, your people, and your country”
– Channel 3 (Israel) – May, 2002
“As I get older, I’m more relaxed and less concerned with what people think of me”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I loved American Pie, and I love those old John Hughes movies, but I don’t get sent those sorts of scripts. I guess people just don’t think of me that way”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I’m not a big designer-clothes person anymore. I just can’t deal with the materialism that goes along with it all”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I’ll get earrings at Target that are $1.50, and people will be like, ‘Those are gorgeous! Where’d you get them?'”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I basically have a little boy’s body. They tell me, ‘OK, this is where we’re going to push up your cleavage,’ and I’m like, ‘What cleavage?'”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“In terms of body image, I think Britney Spears is an awesome role model”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I definitely gained my Freshman 15. I didn’t mind weight so much as I did feeling unhealthy”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“The dining hall was really messing with me. The vegetarian option was usually, like, tofu in oil sauce, and I really didn’t like anything, so I’d ended up eating the vegetarian meal and the pasta and the peanut butter and jelly”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I usually run three or four times a week now. Pretty boring, but it’s so worth is. It’s done wonders for my mood”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“Breast implants gross me out. I don’t think they’re attractive at all”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I wonder how people decided that women were supposed to shave their legs and armpits”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I’ve definitely gotten drunk before – I don’t think it’s possible to go through college without getting drunk – but I don’t really like it at all”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
“I actually tried my first cigarette last year at school. I just figured, if many people are smoking, there must be something to it, and before I pooh-pooh it I should at least know what it’s about. I took one puff and I was like, OK, I was right. There’s nothing to it. They’re just wrong – it’s disgusting”
– Allure (USA) – May, 2002
[On what we get from Star Wars”Girls get the cute boy, guys get a little skin and lots of action”
– starwars.com (USA) – May, 2002
[When asked about her faults] “There’s plenty, I don’t want to give them all away because I want people to like me. I have issues like everyone else, my skins breaks out and I have many insecurities, and I’m impulsive often. There’s things about me which aren’t great. I hope my flaws don’t overwhelm my assets. I try and do my best”
– Newsround (UK) – May, 2002
[Living in Sydney] “We had an apartment in Kings Cross and it was so funny because there was a brothel right across the street”
– Daily Telegraph (Austrailia) – May, 2002
“I feel very at home in an urban, rough environment”
– Daily Telegraph (Austrailia) – May, 2002
“I wish I did get really excited when someone sends me free clothes, but I don’t”
– Daily Telegraph (Austrailia) – May, 2002
“I was in a relationship recently with someone who yelled at me for being too much in my head, you know? He said I was thinking too much about everything”
– Daily Telegraph (Austrailia) – May, 2002
“You should have checked me out when I was 13. I was locking myself in the bathroom, threatening to kill myself — being so mean to my mom and fighting with her her all the time. Girls are horrible. I hope I have boys”
– USA Weekend (USA) – May, 2002
“Smart women love smart men more than smart men love smart women”
– USA Weekend (USA) – May, 2002
“Being an actor is selfish, very ‘me, me, me.’ I’m ambitious, but not cutthroat”
– USA Weekend (USA) – May, 2002
“I can’t deal with failing more than I can’t deal with this business”
– USA Weekend (USA) – May, 2002
“Now I’m like the big nerd, everyone’s like yeah applaud the nerd”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 2002
[On living at Harvard] “It’s nice ’cause everyone knows that someone else can do something way better than they can”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 2002
“I’m a psych major”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 2002
[Watching Star Wars] “I actually only watched it on my own, I have a really hard time watching myself on screen so I just sort of saw it alone in a theatre”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 2002
“I was trying to convince her to switch birthdays so that she gets to be 21 and I get to be 50 and she can, you know, shoot back the alcohol, get a little drunk. But she wasn’t at all for that, she’s like: I don’t like to drink ”
– The Rosie O’Donnell Show (USA) – May, 2002
[On being told she looks undressed] “I’m gonna cry…”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
“I’m getting A’s, but I don’t know what that says”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
“A couple a nights ago because finals just started at school, couple of nights ago they had a ‘primal scream’ which is when everyone runs out naked in the yard, every night before the finals. But I don’t participate or anything. But I’m definitely the pervers with the camera taking pictures… ”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
“It’s more depressing than anything else, I think, seeing naked people; naked smart people have not the best bodies in the world”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
“If I weren’t an actor ? Oh, Lord knows, maybe I’d be a professional action figure or something… ”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
[On her pending 21st birthday] “I’m excited to taste alcohol too! It’s been a long, long patient wait”
– The Late Show with david Letterman (USA) – May, 2002
“One day I was in Madame Tussaud’s and the next day the real thing – I’ve got a wax figure of me now!”
– Daily Star StarMag (UK) – May, 2002
[Spoken at the age of 20] “I only go for fifteen-year-old guys”
– Daily Star StarMag (UK) – May, 2002
“This time around I get to show a little more skin. There are some risqué outfits going on”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
“Hayden and I found a rhythm together right away, learned to trust each other completely, and became co-conspirators”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
“We all want to believe that movie romance and real-life romance are synonymous. Love, after all, is a hard concept for a thinking person to believe in. But I think you have to. Love is something you just have to take and not question too much… Because you want to believe in it so much, right?”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
“I made all that fighting stuff up on the spot, you really have to stash away all your inhibitions when you do it, because you end up looking like a complete fool. You know, I’ve wrestled with air! There’s not a lot of people who can come home from work and say that”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
[On blue-screen acting] “While it’s the purest form of acting, it increased my insanity as much as it improved my skills. You know, it’s 100 per cent in your head”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
“I dread to think what they got up to”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
“I remember this one scene we had to shoot, where me, Hayden, and Ewan all had to stand on this huge, mechanical bull in front of a bluescreen. Hayden was in front, I was in the middle and Ewan was standing behind me. Honestly! The rude things he was whispering in my ear! I mean, Ewan’s a suggestive guy at the best of times, but jumping around together in what he called his ‘sandwich’ was just too good an opportunity for him to resist. Trust me, he said absolutly everything you could imagine…”
– Empire (UK) – May, 2002
[Why her classmates voted her most likely to get on Jeopardy] “Because everyone was saying, ‘Natalie, your’re the biggest nerd'”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
“I think if you joke around and give, like, short little cute responses, it’s uninteresting and watery, so I end up coming off more serious than I actually am. I’m not as boring as it may appear”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
[On the way she was treated at school] “You’re always part of the cycle of evil until you become the object of it”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
[On playing love scenes] “You may be tempted, but you don’t have to make out with the person you’re tempted with, as part of your job”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
[Filming Star Wars]”What I would do between scenes was go somewhere and cry. When you watch the film, you can actually tell, you can see in lots of scenes that I’ve been crying and my eyes are red. It showed on film, and I learned my lesson”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
[Her role in episode II] “So I’m the cradle-robber, I’m the pedophile in this case”
– Premiere (UK) – June, 2002
[Not caring that she missed illicit drinking sessions] “I got to travel the world and meet really amazing people. Like I met Leonardo DiCaprio at a party when I was 14, so I would come home and my friends would be like, ‘Oh, we drank beer this weekend,’ and I’d go, ‘Sorry, I missed that one'”
– Esquire (UK) – June, 2002
“I got this horrible ear infection and they were giving me cortisone shots in my ass for weeks”
– Esquire (UK) – June, 2002
“I never went through any sort of rebellion”
– Esquire (UK) – June, 2002
“My style icon now is Willie Nelson. You’re lucky I didn’t rock the bandanna, too”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I think the really smart people don’t get A’s. They realize it doesn’t matter whether they hand in their paper on time. Whereas all my papers are on time. I don’t challenge the guidelines much”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
[On her barbie dolls] “I remember them being very sexual, I don’t really remember ever not having my dolls have sex with each other. Even the Barbies would get it on with other Barbies, and the guys would get it on with each other”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“The only sibling I ever wanted was an older brother, so he could introduce me to cute boys”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I guess someone can still be sexy even if they’re married”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I don’t go wagging my boobs around in people’s faces”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I mean, Patrick Swayze was sex for me”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“Don’t all morals go out the window if they’re hot enough?”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“Kids are she Shakespearean fools in Hollywood movies. They hold the keys to wisdom in their innocence”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I remember I had a boyfriend, and I kissed him on the first date, and they would call me ‘whore.'”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“I’ve always found actor-y people to be really creepy”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
“Dreams are basically, like, the farts of the mind”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
[On asked if she may be gay] “Sure. I’ve never dated a woman of anything like that, But, I mean, I think it’s much more the person that you fall in love with – and why would you close yourself off to fifty percent of the people?”
– Rolling Stone (USA) – June, 2002
[On turning 21] “I wish I could say I’m leaving pimples and mean boys behind, but that doesn’t exactly happen”
– Teen People (USA) – July, 2002
[On what TV show she would like to appear in] “Friends is hilarious. They could bring Brad Pitt back on, and I’d play anything!”
– Teen People (USA) – July, 2002
“The guy I went with to the prom messed up his plans. There were no reservations, and we ended up sleeping in a car. That’s what happens when you trust guys”
– People (USA) – July, 2002
“When you get older, you realize it’s a lot less about your place in the world but your place in you. It’s not how everyone views you, but how you view yourself”
– Star Wars Insider (USA) – August, 2002
[If her parents hadn’t been around] “I would have definitely gone off the deep end”
– The Isaac Mizrahi Show (USA) – August, 2002
“I am just trying to mess with people”
– The Isaac Mizrahi Show (USA) – August, 2002
“I’m really immature with boys”
– The Isaac Mizrahi Show (USA) – August, 2002
“Smoothies are the worst. I never had one before and this is the most horrible drink I’ve ever had”
– The Isaac Mizrahi Show (USA) – August, 2002