In another installment of “Actors, Wow, They Like Music Too!” (shocking, right? who woulda thought…).
Three years after providing every lazy music writer with a “Garden State”-themed lede in their Shins pieces, Natalie Portman decided to get into the mouthing off about music game again with the charity mixtape Big Change: Songs for FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance) which she curated and includes 16 tracks from artists like Beirut, Tokyo Police Club, Norah Jones, Rogue Wave, Antony & the Johnsons, and exclusive tracks from M. Ward and Devendra Banhart and a new Shins remix (you can hear the Beirut track at EW – the disc is due October 30 on ITunes).
Proving her taste is as predictable as any semi-hip 25-year-old that’s breathing, Portman lauded her edgy tastes which includes freak-folk (“I love this whole movement now with Antony and Devendra and CocoRosie and Sufjan Stevens”) and “modern-day classics” (Radiohead, White Stripes).
Portman also mentions Stevie Wonder is likely her no.1 all-time artist, mentions she went through a teen-angst phase (Nirvana, Juliana Hatfield, Jeff Buckley) and wisely doesn’t even take a shred of credit for the Shins’ growing popularity (“[They] created their own success. No one is gonna think a sound is great just because I say so. They hear the songs, and that’s what decides it for them.”)
Portman starred next to Norah Jones in the upcoming Wong Kar-Wai film, “My Blueberry Nights” (soundtrack details here; film due Feb 13), so scoring her participation on the charity comp was as easy as a phone call.
Meanwhile, after baring her bum (not a fucking nude scene you chumps) for Wes Anderson’s much-blogged about 13-minute short “Hotel Chevalier,” Portman now apparently regrets showing-off her bottom.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t listen to my intuition,” she said (who knows who she said it to directly, it’s spread like wildfire now). “From now on, I’m going to trust my gut more. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is say no.”
We can hear Wes’ hurt feelings from here. [ed. you’ve outdone yourself]
Update: Oh wait, Portman has asked the U.S. magazine Parade that ran her nudity quotes to run a retraction saying her comments about nudity and ‘Chevalier’ were taken out of context.
“We say that Portman regrets doing a nude scene in the movie Hotel Chevalier. This is wrong,” the magazine said of their gaffe. “When Portman writes about this in Parade, she does not mention a specific movie title. She tells us she was referring to a torture scene with a body double in ‘Goya’s Ghosts,’ which was taken out of context and leaked onto the Internet. Portman is very happy with ‘Hotel Chevalier’ and proud of her work in the film.”
Big Change: Songs for FINCA tracklist according to Pitchfork.
01 Tokyo Police Club: “Be Good”
02 Beirut: “My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille” [exclusive]
03 Tom Brosseau: “Plaid Lined Jacket”
04 Curumin: “Tudo Bem Malandro”
05 The Shins: “Australia (Bjorn Yttling Mix)” [exclusive]
06 Brett Dennen: “Ain’t No Reason”
07 Sean Hayes: “Turnaroundturnmeon”
08 Thee More Shallows: “Oh Yes, Another Mother”
09 Angus & Julia Stone: “The Beast”
10 Antony & the Johnsons: “Paddy’s Gone”
11 Vetiver: “Idle Ties”
12 Norah Jones: “Broken”
13 Devendra Banhart: “There’s Always Something Happening” [exclusive]
14 M. Ward: “What Is a Soul?” [exclusive]
15 Wooden Wand: “Forgiveness Figg (Bethany Hotel Blues)”
16 Rogue Wave: “How We Landed” [exclusive]
