Natalie Portman is quite clear

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When asked why she took on the role of a wife and mother of two young children in her new family drama Brothers, Natalie Portman is quite clear.

"I just don't want to be cute any more," states the 28-year-old. "I've been playing girl-woman roles for a long time and I was excited about the opportunity of playing an adult. I really wanted the challenge."

The brainy beauty, who has a psychology degree from Harvard, threw herself wholeheartedly into her role of an Army wife whose husband's helicopter is blown out of the sky in Afghanistan.

Natalie talked to a dozen or more military wives and their families, and also drew on the influence of her own mum.

"My own mother is the most maternal, nurturing, warm, cosy mommy," she says. "So I had all that in me. She was a great role model."

In Brothers, Portman's ill-fated husband is played by Tobey Maguire. His charming, ex-convict brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) tries to fill in for him at home by assuming new-found responsibilities, but finds himself falling for his sister-in-law.

Natalie was old friends with both her co-stars, having known Maguire since she was 14 and after once dating Gyllenhaal. So whenever there was any tension on set she automatically became the peacemaker.

"I don't like fighting so I was a sort of mediator," she laughs. "And boys can be such girls sometimes."

Portman is clearly not your typical Hollywood actress. Although she made her film debut at the age of 13 in Luc Besson's Léon, she has successfully avoided joining the list of child-star casualties.

Composed, level-headed and highly intelligent, she drives an environmentally-sound Toyota Prius, is a strict vegan, and refuses to wear leather or fur.

She will only use non-animal tested make-up and shuns diamonds because of the way they are mined.

She is also deeply involved with Finca International, an organisation that makes loans to poor women in developing countries to start their own businesses.

"It sounds almost like a parody of political correctness," Natalie readily admits.

"But at the same time we can't be ashamed of trying to be good in all aspects of our lives. There are ways to have fun and also incorporate the stuff you care about too."

She wants to make it clear, though, that she isn't a total goody-goody.

"I have a lot of fun," she says. "I can't when I'm working, but when I'm out of the public eye I go out and have fun and party with my friends. My friends aren't famous people, though, and we
go to each other's apartments rather than to clubs with movie stars. That's not my group of people."

Natalie also never talks about her boyfriends - which have included actors Lukas Haas and Gael Garcia Bernal - and went to great lengths for years to keep her real name, Hershlag, a secret.

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, she moved with her parents to New York when she was seven. Three years later she was discovered by a modelling scout in a pizza parlour and landed the role of the waif-like orphan who is taken in by a hit man in the acclaimed Léon.

Her performance captured the attention of major directors such as Woody Allen, Michael Mann and Tim Burton, who all cast her in small roles in their films.

She enrolled at Harvard and earned her degree, while becoming a bankable household name as Queen Amidala in Star Wars.

Natalie has since formed her own production company and has tried her hand at directing.

"I love acting but it means you leave your friends, family and home for three or four months," she says.

"If you do it more than once a year, then you really don't have a life.

"But producing and directing would allow me to live at home and be with my friends."

* Brothers is out today.