Portman’s Oscar-winning performance in Black Swan has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after her ballerina body double claimed the actress was involved in just 5% of the dance scenes. This statement contradicted the claims of her baby-making fiance Benjamin Millepied, who suggested that he ‘simplified’ the choreography, allowing the actress to complete 85% of the necessary dance shots without Lane’s body or Aronofsky’s crafty camera work. Contentious statistics are being thrown all over the place with many naysayers using it as an excuse to challenge Portman’s right to her Academy Award. Is it worth pointing out that the Oscars are generally based on one’s acting? Probably not. Aronofsky has spoken out to defend Portman’s 18 month unrivalled commitment to the movie. In a poignant statement through studio Fox Searchlight (published by Entertainment Weekly) he said,
“Here is the reality. 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. 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.”
Aronofky has previously stated in interviews that he does not like to watch or analyse his films once they have been completed. To have someone glean through Black Swan simply to quash a rather catty statement just demonstrates how strongly he feels on this point. Portman gave a year and a half of her life to the movie and delivered a haunting performance as Nina. To contest her percentage of dancing screen time seems unnecessary. Later in his statement Aronofsky added that ,
“I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor. Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance. And I don’t want anyone to think that’s not her they are watching. It is.”
Perhaps Lane’s claims were down to a misunderstanding, a lack of knowledge about how the film was edited or maybe even a fall-out with the production team. Regardless, if Aronofsky feels it’s worth a defence, we’re banking that the majority of those pointy toes belong to Natalie.
Anonymous
Apr 8, 2011 at 9:56 am
I like stuntmen. They do the hardest, most dangerous work on a movie but most people never know their names. And they understand that their job is rather to make the stars look good. I watched the movie Black Swan for the second time! The first one I visited theatre and this one I just downloaded it from http://www.torrentoff.com and I deeply impressed by it! I think this dancer knew, what she was going to do, when she gave her agreement to that!The role of a stuntman, or a dance double, or a special effects team, is to create false reality only!