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Natalie Portman sits down for a photo shot with fashion magazine Elle. Inside Natalie talks about her childhood life, determination, and her latest film The Other Boleyn Girl. They even ask questions about Hillary Clinton and the current Presidential race! Check out some snippets below.

On childhood…

“[I was] different from the other kids: I was more ambitious. I knew what I liked and what I wanted, and I worked really hard to get it.”

On her character “Anne” in The Other Boleyn Girl”…

I really saw it as a cautionary tale about capitalism. All of the characters who subscribe to these values of rising up and gaining power and who will step on anyone to get there are punished. Anne is certainly the most forward about it, but she is following her family’s values. She wants to impress her father even though he betrays her, whereas Mary thinks there’s something sick about this world and removes herself from it. I think it’s very different to be ambitious and to be ruthlessly ambitious, which Anne certainly is in the movie. In reality, an argument can be made that Anne Boleyn was witch-hunted because she had so much power.

On Hillary, Barack, and McCain…

A lot of the stuff people say about her, I hear it and my stomach falls because it’s so sexist. You ask people why they don’t like her and it’s because her husband cheated on her! That was obviously not her choice. She’s so much more polished and experienced than anyone else. Last night, a friend, a social worker in L.A. who works with underprivileged kids, was saying how these girls who have never been interested in politics before are so excited that a woman might be president. I mean, look how many women are in government…Hillary’s one of, what, [a handful of] female senators?

I also like Obama. I even like McCain. I disagree with his war stance—which is a really big deal—but I think he’s a very moral person. I met him and Hillary on the same day, actually, when I went to Washington with Finca [a nonprofit that gives loans to businesswomen in developing countries]. Hillary was by far the smartest person I met that day. Just totally focused, and knew more about the issues than anyone else, and was so able to go from one thing to the other.

On becoming a director/writer…

Writing is like acting in that mentally you become all of the characters. You have to consider, What would they do now? What would they think now? You have to go through their progression. In terms of directing, it took working with enough people to think: Okay, if they can do it, I can do it. You start realizing your own level of experience when you work with people who aren’t as experienced. I sometimes forget that I’ve been on a lot more movie sets than even some of the most well-known directors.

Click here to check out more quotes and photos.  The issue hits stands April 2008.