Natalie Portman ("Closer," "Star Wars Episode III") stars as Evey, an innocent young woman who's rescued by a masked man (Hugo Weaving) known as 'V'. An incredibly skilled fighter, V believes he can bring about great social change and works to unite his fellow citizens in a fight against oppression. As Evey learns more about the masked man who saved her life, she becomes V's ally in the war against tyranny.
Natalie Portman Explains Her Attraction to "V for Vendetta:" "I just think because it’s not telling you what to think… I mean, that’s my own personal opinion from how I see it. I don’t think you walk away from reading the graphic novel 'V for Vendetta,' or from seeing the film that we made, thinking anything. We’re not telling you to think anything and I think we’re asking you to ask more questions and to ask more questions of the material and to demand answers that will never [be answered]. There are no answers to these questions.
I think it’s ambiguous. It’s not good hero and a bad establishment that he’s fighting - or you could see it that way. I mean, it’s very much shifting perspectives and complicated characters and complicated situations, and I think it’s interesting and challenging for a reader or a viewer."
Natalie Portman on Playing Evey: Portman said she didn't feel any additional pressure playing this particular role. "No. You know, we do our best to make something that people will like. I mean, not necessarily that they’ll like but that they’ll be entertained by, provoked by, whatever, and you can never tell if or how people will respond.
I’m really enthusiastic about it and I loved making it. I’m really interested by the story. I think we’ve got an amazing source in the graphic novel that Alan and David created. And I feel lucky to be a part of it."
Joel Silver Addresses Concerns Over the Lack of Involvement by Alan Moore: "I know it’s a faithful transition between the graphic novel that Alan [Moore] and David [Lloyd] created and the script that the Wachowskis wrote.
I had met Alan years ago when we had lunch one day with Alan - and David - years ago where we acquired the project. And, you know, since that time a lot has happened on other Alan Moore projects and he just doesn’t want to be involved with this process. But David liked the script and felt we had… He liked how it kind of was faithful to the material."
Joel Silver on Violence in the Film and the Real Life Bombings in London: Silver said he wasn't overly concerned about his film echoing any actual events. "It’s a fictional story. …I mean it’s just a society that reminds us of England because it has landmarks in it. But it’s a totalitarian city that David and Alan created, that was created during the Thatcher era of England and there was a big conservative movement. But [this] is a political state where there is need to change the state.
I don’t think that you can watch the movie without feeling something either way. Whether the bad authority in Iraq or compare it to how we can look at Nazi Germany, it’s a difficult time. But I think that it’s a smart movie. It’s that horrible word – intellectual. I mean you have to think about the movie. It isn’t a teen slasher movie. There’s a lot going on here.
I think that what the boys have done is they’ve really, it is an enormous graphic novel – it’s enormous characters and stories and themes that they just couldn’t all incorporate into a two-hour movie. But it does have the same beginning and it does have a strong similar middle and has the same end. And they really made it look and feel like the novel. They used David’s drawings as the basis for the material."
Joel Silver on Filming "V for Vendetta" in Germany: "It’s shot primarily in Germany because we had an economically advantageous situation with the government there and really wonderful deals and made a really great movie there, but then we had to come back to London for a few days to really get the sense of that place. But I just think it’s a movie that is unlike a lot of other movies that are being made right now. And I think that’s good. I think our job as filmmakers is to make things fresh and unique and original…"
Page 2: Natalie Portman's Favorite Scene and the Film's Depiction of Violence
