Via Adam Markovitz at EW: Responding to claims that "Black Swan" star Natalie Portman didn’t do the majority of her on-screen dancing in her Oscar-winning role, director Darren Aronofsky released the following statement through studio Fox Searchlight:
“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...
More from Aronofsky after the cut...
...And to be clear Natalie did dance on pointe in pointe shoes. If you look at the final shot of the opening prologue, which lasts 85 seconds, and was danced completely by Natalie, she exits the scene on pointe. That is completely her without any digital magic. 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.”
Last Friday, ballerina Sarah Lane told EW that Portman only danced 5 percent of the full-body shots in the film. She also claimed that one of the film’s producers asked her not to speak publicly about her work during Oscar season. Lane’s comments came after Black Swan choreographer (and Portman fiancé) Benjamin Millepied told the L.A. Times that Natalie did “85 percent” of the dancing in the film. Lane could not be immediately reached for comment regarding Aronofsky’s statement.
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It was Portman dancing. Can we all move on now?
More people who need things to be negative...sigh.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why Sarah Lane wants to take credit for such mediocre dancing, but whatever.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's a different story...but it's just a non story in general.
ReplyDeleteI never had was fooled to believe Portman had done all of the dancing. And truly the most important dance scenes such as the prologue and the first part of her Black Swan dance are clearly her. She's not a great dancer but she's more than adequate, and what's far more impressive is her focused intensity, commitment and expression. Especially in those two key sequences.
ReplyDelete