Jake interviews Natalie Portman

Jake Gyllenhaal interviewed to Natalie Portman, his co-star in the upcoming war drama Brothers for the September 2009 issue of Interview Magazine (featuring Natalie Portman on the cover):

PORTMAN: [laughs] I remember as a kid being really scared of the Smurfs.
GYLLENHAAL: That’s interesting because you seem so fearless.

PORTMAN: Really?

GYLLENHAAL: Yeah. Looking at all these things that you’ve done and contributed to the world so far, I would have thought that the evil wizard Gargamel would’ve been something you could have very easily stepped over.

JG: What’s your favorite food?
NP: Well, I don’t think you can really improve upon Carvel ice cream cake.

JG: I’m more Baskin-Robbins style myself.

NP: Oh really? I am so Carvel. Did I just bring us back to 1985 Long Island?

JG: What song best describes your current state?

NP: My current state . . . I’m trying to think of a song that feels like sleepwalking. [laughs] I don’t know. I’ve mostly been listening to dirty rap lately. That’s sort of my scene.JG: Your affection for dirty rap is something that people really don’t know about you, which I think is fascinating. You do incredible things for the world, and then you listen to just completely obscene hip-hop music.

NP: Really, really obscene hip-hop. I love it so much. It makes me laugh and then it makes me want to dance. Those are like my two favorite things, so combined . . . I’ve been listening a lot lately to “Wait (The Whisper Song)” by the Ying Yang Twins, where the lyrics are like, “Wait ’til you see my d—”—which is just amazing because it’s whispered. [whispers] “Wait ’til you see my d— . . . ” [laughs] Crazy. So I just listen to it like I’m a five-year-old, like, “Oh my god! I can’t believe he just said that!”

JG: It’s interesting that you think the lyric “Wait ’til you see my d—” describes your current state. I think people are learning more about you right now then they ever have in an interview. I’m proud of that.PORTMAN: As far as skills go . . . I don’t have that many skills.

GYLLENHAAL: Oh, come on!

PORTMAN: I’m serious. I really wish I could make something. I mean, you’re a really good cook, you know how to build things—you can make things with your hands. I can’t make anything . . . Well, I can make chitchat, but not much else. I mean, I’d basically have trouble with any job that doesn’t require me to wear silly clothes and talk in funny voices.

GYLLENHAAL: I’m interested in this because you’re a traveler: What are your cures for jet lag?

PORTMAN: Cures for jet lag? I don’t have any. Why? Are you having bad jet lag these days?GYLLENHAAL: No. But I’ve been finding that it’s a tendency for most magazines to ask celebrities about their cures for jet lag. I’m fascinated by it. I heard there’s this new drug coming out that’s like melatonin. It’s natural, but it’s been modified more specifically for sleeping.

PORTMAN: I get freaked out by pills. Everyone I know is always like, “I’m just going to take a Valium or an Ambien on the plane.” But I can’t do any of that stuff—it scares me.

GYLLENHAAL: My favorite situation that I was ever in was when I was on a plane with a group of people and all of them took Ambien except for me, and two of them had adverse reactions. They were awake and aggressive . . . Apparently aggression is one of the side effects of Ambien.

PORTMAN: And they were completely unaware, right—like they didn’t remember it after?

GYLLENHAAL: No, I think they remember it. Everyone else was dead asleep, and these two people were like, bashing their heads against the side of the plane, trying to jump out. So I was like, If taking this pill means that there’s even a 30 percent chance of me getting aggressive like that, then I would just rather stay at peace.
PORTMAN: You’re a very peaceful man, Jake.
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com