I’m a 19-year-old girl, and I am dreading the AOTC love story bits. I do enjoy a good love story, but Anakin and Amidala don’t particularly interest me as characters and I really don’t have a lot of faith that they’re going to change that. On the other hand, I enjoyed the original series love story a lot - yeah, it wasn’ t all that complex or anything, but I cared about Han and Leia and that makes all the difference.
I’m still really excited about AOTC, though. You know why? Because it has lightsaber fights! Who doesn’t like lightsaber fights? Lightsabers!
So, yeah, if Portman was being serious she’s full of crap.
She doesn’t - did you read my whole post? I was referring to the “I mean, I’m a girl” part, where she implies that girls only care about beefcake & romance and not adventure.
Ah. Your last post didn’t specifically say you were referring to the “I’m a girl” part of her comments. Re-reading the OP, though, that makes sense. Apologies.
“I didn’t have this undying need to be an actress. I didn’t have that fire in me ever – at any point. And still, I don’t think I have that within me.” (imdb.com)
It might be true or at least the studios think that advertising the romance angle will bring more girls in. That’s the only reason I can think movies like Pearl Harbor have romance sub plots.
From what I read about Neeson, it was more he wasn’t excited about the whole fanboy base. Other than that, every article seemed like he LOVED playing a Jedi. He loved having a lightsaber, and all that.
Maybe I should take back my earlier post. There was an interview with Portman in a Swedish newspaper. She said exactly the same thing. I still have the impression that she’s not stupid (then again I speak three languages, and I’m not all that smart, just good att BS).
So my new line of thought is that she’s been prepped for pressjunket with rehearsed answers that the studio think is appropriate
I think Legomancer was referring not just to Portman’s apparent disdain of Star Wars and science fiction in general (which, like it or not, is a seminal part of literature and film) but to her comment as quoted by Zebra. That was not a very intelligent comment.
It seems that every time someone’s intelligence is questioned it turns out that they went to Harvard and speak three languages, facts that ought to demonstrate somehow that the person in question can’t be stupid. Not so: what such cases actually demonstrate is that trilingual Harvard alumni are morons.
But seriously. Studying at Harvard is no indication of intelligence; speaking three languages is perhaps a slightly better indicator, but not necessarily much. In the case of actors speaking to the public, it is words that ultimately indicate apparent intelligence, and Portman’s words fall short of being terribly bright. Perhaps those lines were fed to her, perhaps they are her own words, but in this business appearance is everything.
Anyway, I’m sure she raved about the insipid romance in Titanic and Pearl Harbor too…
By the way, on an interview a few days ago I heard Ewan McGregor explain how he was surprised and disappointed by the title “Attack of the Clones”. I have to agree with him, that is a sorry and uninspired title indeed. Months before the release of Episode 2, the Cartoon Network was running ads for the following I Am Weasel special feature:
I.R. Strikes Back:
ATTACK OF THE KLOWNS
I didn’t see the special, but the ad, which had I.R. Baboon ominously sniffing his finger to the soundtrack of heavy Darth Vader breathing, cracked me up.
“Math is hard” is a reference to a notorious talking Barbie which said that (amongst other things.) Legomancer wasn’t deriding Ms. “Portman”'s intelligence, but (I believe) making a comment about arbitrary cultural ideas about what girls should or shouldn’t like.
[slight hi-jack]
Then again, She’s from Isreal. And people from smaller countries/speaking weirder languages/ have to learn more forreign languages.
In Sweden we start with English at 9 (and I think you can start at 7) third language at 13 and the 4th at 16.
Add to that a large influx of immigrants with kids who speak yet another of 78 languages…
It’s not all that strange.
[/slight hijack]