While appearing older was a major concern for Episode II, Portman said the situation had been exactly the opposite the first time around. "George told me his biggest struggle with Amidala was to make it believable that a 14-year-old would be Queen," she said. "No one could doubt she could be Queen, so we worked a lot on voice and posture, all the movement and facial expressions, to make it very stern. Even though it's already more acceptable just because it's part of the Star Wars universe, I think it was a little less questioned because of all the stuff we worked on."

Portman's performance was a success partly because the actress has always brought to her roles a certain maturity that seemed beyond her years, beginning with her widely acclaimed debut in The Professional (also known as Léon), which she made at the age of 12 after being discovered in a Manhattan pizza parlor by a representative of Revlon. She followed with another scene-stealing turn in Beautiful Girls and a trio of supporting roles as three different daughters, playing the child of Al Pacino in Heat, Goldie Hawn in Everyone Says I Love You, and President Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! Portman also drew raves for a run on Broadway starring in The Diary of Anne Frank.

Fame came early for Portman, but the actress said she's gained insight into what's important in life. "I remember when I was younger, thinking, 'Why wouldn't someone want to be famous?'--like, famous is the coolest thing you could be," she said. "But when you get older, you realize it's a lot less about your place in the world but your place in you. It's not how everyone views you, but how you view yourself. It's important not to get too narrowly focused and keep that perspective."

George Lucas was confident enough in Portman's potential and abilities to offer her a starring role in his next three Star Wars movies, and her winning performance rewarded his faith. As Amidala, Portman radiated strength and self-assurance without sacrificing the sense that this leader was still a very young girl stuck with an adult's job. Infusing her character with courage and compassion, the actress made believable the link between Padmé and Princess Leia, the daughter who follows so closely in her footsteps.

"It definitely did come into play how strong and smart a character Carrie Fisher portrayed, because I think that a lot of that is passed on from parent to child," Portman said. "I think George wrote Amidala as a strong, smart character, but it helped to know that I had this great woman before me who had portrayed her character as a fiery woman."

But despite creating a cinematic kinship with Carrie Fisher, Portman said she had yet to meet the actress who played the Princess when she shot The Phantom Menace. "I never met Carrie Fisher before I did the film," she said, adding that Attack of the Clones was to be a different story. "I recently met her for the first time. We were at an event together, and she introduced me as her mother!"