Natalie Portman found worldwide fame by starring in the iconic 2010 film Black Swan. Portraying the role of a ballerina who goes to extreme lengths to be the white swan in the play, the film explains the fine line between passion and obsession.
Winning an Oscar for her role, her stunt double was used for some shots. Alleging that she faked her performance, director Darren Aronofsky and co-star Mila Kunis were quick to the rescue when Portman was accused of cheating her way to an Oscar win!
Natalie Portman Danced Her Way To An Oscar Win!
In 2011, Natalie Portman won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 2010 film Black Swan. A movie that evens out the fine line between dedication and a need to be the best (much like Whiplash), the movie was very well received around the world and Portman became famous.
With director Darren Aronofsky at the helm of the project and Mila Kunis joining along for the ride, Black Swan was praised but more importantly, Portman gave her all for the role of Odette. After winning the Oscar, her stunt double, Sarah Lane claimed that she was used for most of her dance shots. Stating that they did so to solidify their Oscar win by naming Natalie Portman as a fine artist, Sarah Lane alleged that Portman did not dance in the film.
Director Darren Aronofsky and co-star Mila Kunis came to the rescue of Portman by dismissing these allegations in a statement (via The Guardian).
“I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math, that’s 80% Natalie Portman.”
He further continued,
“What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman.”
Alongside the director, Mila Kunis also supported her co-star by stating that the dance sequences were indeed done by Natalie Portman.
Mila Kunis Also Stood By Natalie Portman’s Oscar Win
Although portraying rivals on-screen, Mila Kunis could not simply stand by and watch her co-star get defamed. Stating that Portman did dance on her tiptoes during the opening sequence itself, Kunis revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Portman “danced her a** off”.
“Natalie danced her ass off. She’ll tell you [that], no, she was not on pointe when she did a fouetté [turn], no one’s going to deny that. But she did do every ounce of every one of her dances.”
With the Thor actress winning an Oscar for her role, Black Swan received a rating of 8/10 on IMDB and a high of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2010 film is available to rent on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
