Granted, the tiny thespian had ballet training as a young sprite, and managed to transform her body into ballerina perfection. But why is it necessary to deconstruct the wonderful fable that is “Black Swan”?
So did Natalie Portman dance in the majority of “Black Swan” or what?
A better question might be: why does this matter so much?
Granted, the tiny thespian had ballet training as a young sprite, and managed to transform her body into a ballerina’s perfect anorectic mien for the film. But why is it necessary to deconstruct the wonderful fable that is “Black Swan”?
Doesn’t anyone remember a central component of film pleasure? That is, you must go into a film with a willing suspension of disbelief.
Does this discount her body double’s (Sarah Lane) claim that it was she who danced 85 percent of the studied moves? Maybe a little, but with a caveat.
There have been body doubles and voice doubles for as long as studios have been in business. Of course there was a ballet dancer who performed the difficult moves in the film, probably in a lot more scenes that we are aware of.
But so what? Does this result in our disdain of Portman’s Oscar win?
I thought the award was for acting not dancing. Lane, a 27-year-old soloist with the American Ballet Theatre, has been tooting her horn for months now and while she credits Portman with terrific acting, the whole episode smells like fermented grapes.
Does she think the Oscar should have been shared by Portman’s double? Rhetorical question.
Lane claims she was hushed about speaking of details regarding exactly who danced what and when. Adding insult to injury, in Lane’s eyes that is, she was posthaste removed from the DVD’s extra scenes.
Not a good way to win over "Black Swan’s" choreographer Benjamin Millepied (who also happens to be Portman’s baby daddy, soon to be husband).
And in fact Millepied went further to distance the Lane controversy from his film work. He reportedly said that Lane only performed a few in-studio sequences and Portman’s dancing dominatesabout 85 percent of the shots. My bet would be on the choreographer.
Mila Kunis (the one with the lips) jumped on the bandwagon, asserting that the controversy was “unfortunate,” and went one step further, saying her co-star danced her “ass off.” In the end, though, are we going to remember Natalie Portman’s haunting and haunted performance, or what’s-her-face en pointe?