The romance between stars Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman is pivotal to Episode II - Attack of the Clones. But did the passionate storyline ever spill over into real life?



The odd couple



She is coolly self-assured and unimpressed by fame. He is grappling with a role more famous than he is. Below, Natalie Portman explains why she thought twice about being in Star Wars and, overleaf, Hayden Christensen reveals his desperation to become Anakin.



For red-blooded male fans, the release of Episode II - Attack of the Clones brings an added frisson of anticipation: the prospect of seeing the beautiful Natalie Portman. For romantics, there is also the promise of a love story - the first since Harrison Ford's Han Solo lost his heart to Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia. And this time, it's serious.



Only two Earth years have passed since we saw Portman as Queen Padmé Amidala in Episode I - The Phantom Menace, but on Naboo ten years have elapsed. The former queen is now a senator and Anakin Skywalker has assumed strapping adult form - that of Canadian actor Hayden Christensen. Expect a darker Star Wars film than the four that have gone before. And expect throbbing passion.



It had to happen, of course. This love was pre-ordained and will lead to the birth of Leia and Luke Skywalker. But Portman is keen to assure fans that there is still plenty of action. 'This one has more battles than the previous one, but at the same time the story has a much more human element,' she says.



'The Phantom Menace was more of an introduction to the characters - you can't tell the story without knowing who those people are first.'



The only surprise in the latest roll call was the casting of Christensen after a long search by director George Lucas for an actor whose chemistry with Portman would be suitably combustible. For her part, Portman plays a perfect senator, embodying her character's finest qualities of beauty, brains and idealism. Indeed, she is so perfect for the role that it might have been conceived for her. Yet, when Lucas first offered her a three-film deal, with the assurance of world stardom, she told him that she'd have to think about it.



Portman wasn't being stroppy or arrogant, just her normal, level-headed self. It was, she felt, a 'huge commitment' for a 16-year-old. 'I still don't know if acting is what I want to do for the rest of my life,' she explains. 'When George offered me the role, I was honoured and flattered. But I had to think of the implications of doing a film like this - the recognition and the lack of privacy.'



Then her positive side kicked in. She told herself, 'This is going to be fun!', signed the contract, and a grateful Lucas rearranged his schedule around her school year. 'I feel that I'm a positive role model by not putting my education on hold,' she said, before proceeding to get top marks in maths and science and then entering college, where she's studying psychology. 'I'm going to college,' she proclaimed. 'I don't care if it ruins my career. I'd rather be smart than a film star.'



Portman wears her celebrity lightly, like some diaphanous garment that she might at any moment shed. She may, she says, become a psychologist. Or a vet.



'It would feel limiting to say, "Acting is it for me." There are so many things that interest me. I love psychology. And I'd love to have a family one day.'



Such self-possession is impressive in one so young - she is now 20 - and so small ('Little thing! Little, bitty thing!' marvelled Oprah Winfrey when Portman appeared on her show.



So, who is Portman? Well, for a start, her name is not Portman. Her parents have forbidden her surname from being published in the hope of preserving some semblance of normal family life. For a while, even the school she attended was secret - until a radio station held a contest to find it.



We do know that Portman was born in Israel, the only child of Jewish parents. She was three when her father's work as a fertility specialist took them to a well-to-do New York suburb and they've since settled on Long Island. Portman has a dog called Noodles. She doesn't drink or smoke and is a strict vegan. She speaks fluent Hebrew, French and Japanese.



'My parents,' she says, 'have always stressed education over success, over money - over everything.'



She was 11 years old when she was spotted in a pizza restaurant by a scout from the Revlon cosmetic firm, who asked if she had ever thought of modelling. She said no because she thought it would be 'stupid and boring'.



'I'd really be more interested in acting,' she told him. She went to theatre camp and by the age of 12 was starring in Luc Besson's film Leon, as a girl who befriends a hitman. It was a disturbing and compelling performance.



There followed a role in Heat, with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You. 'God, I was awful in that,' she groans. 'My agent said, "You just don't turn down Woody Allen." But I was so wrong for it. There was so much improvisation and I just couldn't do it.'



That was, though, her one failure and she seems set for huge success - if she should choose it. 'In ten years, she's going to run the world', predicted a smitten Ted Demme, after she starred in his Beautiful Girls in 1996. 'I want to be one of her assistants.'



Despite her impressive CV, Portman is almost as well known for what she's turned down as for her work to date. She was offered a role in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, which she found 'so dark'. She passed up on playing Juliet to Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. And she declined the title role in Adrian Lyne's Lolita. 'I don't think,' she said, 'there needs to be a film out where a child has sex with an adult.'



She also almost passed up the chance to play Susan Sarandon's daughter in Anywhere But Here because of one sex scene. 'I was 16 at the time and just wasn't willing to do that,' she explains. Sarandon, however, was set on Portman, so the scene was toned down. 'She is a very smart girl,' Sarandon would later say, 'who has had a very rarefied upbringing, raised with a lot of confidence and self-esteem.'



She doubts she would take a role if there was a chance that it would distress or embarrass her parents. 'It's more important to me to make my parents happy and proud. If I were to offend them, I'd be more upset than at missing out on some stupid film role.'



Professionally, Portman has been on one long roll but her success has not been without emotional cost. 'I was really popular up until I was 13,' she says. 'Then I came back from shooting Leon and no one would talk to me. Everyone said, "You think you're so hot!" I had no friends. It was the worst year of my life.'



Things improved when she moved schools, but some damage lingered. 'I've been much more inhibited since that experience. I used to be the first one to get on stage at school and sing. Now, you couldn't pay me to do that.'



There is no hesitation, however, when she says she wants children - several children. 'I don't like being an only child. It's strange for me to think that my children won't have cousins from my side and I won't have anyone to be conspirators with and talk about my parents to.'



She becomes wary when she talks about meeting the man of her dreams. He would have to be intelligent, able to talk about 'anything' ad to read books and discuss them.



There would no doubt be a loud collective 'Ah...' if she were now to reveal that she has indeed found love - especially if it was with Christensen.



She has denied rumours that the pair did, indeed, go out together for a while, but remains admiring. 'He is very sweet,' she says of her co-star. 'He is a wonderful actor and I was happy to work with him because he is really good.'



Still, if they had dated, she probably wouldn't tell: 'I know the truth about my life and that is the only thing that's important.' The star is obviously still guarding her mystery.



It is not a good idea to date actresses - especially if you are doing a sequel with them