BLACK SWAN Featurette: Natalie Portman's Training

Comments · 1.5K

• LA

  @la.rochito · 12 years ago

  In my opinion, the dance is a important part, but her expressions and acting were... my god... you can not improvise that. She's a great actress performing a dancer and she did what she did amazingly. Love her.

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• JU

  @juley0721 · 5 years ago

  I'm a ballerina and I'm not at all offended by it. Natalie's acting was phenomenal, and that's what she's there for. To act, not to dance. This is a movie about mental illness, not ballet. The director never said that she became a ballerina. He said that she portrayed the role convincingly, and that's exactly what she did and was supposed to do in the first place.

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• JA

  @janekimmy6579 · 10 years ago

  I'm sorry but when action movies roll out, no one expects to have the actors do all the jumping and stunting even when they perform simple stunts themselves? The movie focused on the mental illness, not the ballet and she did a good job acting like a ballerina. She even committed to losing weight for a more believable body. As far as I can, she convinced us that she was the ballerina, hence the Oscar.

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• EL

  @ElvenSkywalker · 13 years ago

  Everyone knows it's not possible to become a professional Ballet dancer in a year . She trained to try and look the part , develop muscles , tone the body and learn as much of ballet as possible in that time frame . She trained for upto 8 hrs - swimming a mile , doing ballet , cross training - all on a very strict starvation diet while working on other movies too , everyday for 6 months ! . We're talking bout her dedication and hard work here . Respect .

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• NE

  @nerdycats · 10 years ago

  I respect her for putting in the work to convince us though.

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• HE

  @helenheywood2286 · 10 years ago

  Natalie's role in this was to ACT like a dancer, not to spend her whole life training and be a dancer, she is an actress. She absolutely committed to this role and deserved all the praise she received. She was incredibly convincing in this movie and she had the upper body of a dancer, which was all that was shown in most of the shots used. She openly has a body double, but it is admirable that she committed in such a way that made her that convincing just in upper body shots. Thats something most dancers have to work their whole life on.

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• LD

  @ldillworth · 11 years ago

  I still don't understand the "controversy"  I don't think anyone claimed that Natalie Portman is some prodigy ready to be a principal in a major company.  She put in many many hours of training to convincingly portray a dancer, which I think is commendable and you would think dancers would respect an actor for that.  Portman won an Oscar for her portrayal of a troubled woman, she didn't win the Prix De Luasanne.

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• BA

  @barbier5488 · 11 years ago

  The stunt doubles name is in the credits at the end of the movie, just like any other stunt doubles name should be. What do people want, for the real ballerina to get an Oscar too? Get real!

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• AW

  @AwakingOceanborn · 11 years ago

  I think that what tickles the ballet world off the most is that someone somewhere said they made a ballerina out of her in six months. WE KNOW IT IS NOT POSSIBLE. As you can hear here Aronofsky said "She is very convincing" (at playing a ballerina) he never said she became a ballerina. Also, I don't think Portman even hinted that she had done that she doesn't strike me as disrespectful. Further proof, Mary Hellen Bowers is a ballerina, I like to think she wouldn't stand for such nonsense. If the credit Ms Lane received for a stunt double was less that what she deserved (at doing her job of being a stunt double) then I'm deeply sorry and ashamed for it. As someone who has done ballet (as a hobby though) I can understand your frustration and anger. But, this was a FILM not a BALLET PERFORMANCE, I'm all for giving credit when credit is due, but (im my opinion) by discrediting Nnatalie as a ballerina, which she isn't and never said she was, we are also discrediting her brillant acting skills which make possible for her to act as a ballerina (and one who also has serious mental problems on top of that)

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• HA

  @harrybo_1 · 6 years ago (edited)

  Okay, I don’t think people actually understand why the ballet world is upset, so I’ll explain. Natalie deserves that Oscar (for me at least) as she acted the role amazingly and should have gotten the Oscar purely based on the acting skills. There is no shame in having a dance double and most dancing films have them. However, her and the director acted as if they’d made Natalie into a professional dancer in a year and as if she’d done most of the dancing shots in order to help boost the chances of getting an Oscar. She shouldn’t have had to do that because, as I said, there’s no shame in having a dance double and no one was expecting her to dance most of the film. She then didn’t mention her double in the acceptance speech to further make it seem like she did all the dancing and was taking credit for it. The double was credited as a ‘hand double’ not a dance double at the end of the movie. That is just insulting. No one is asking for this double to get more recognition as other doubles, but to get the same recognition as other doubles because they effectively acted like she didn’t exist. That’s all we are saying. To reiterate, Natalie deserved the Oscar for acting, not dancing. Hope this clears things up.

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• IM

  @imnaynay · 8 years ago

  Am I the only dancer who absolutely adores this movie? Not even because it has ballet woven into it, but because of the story, the fact that Mila Kunis is in it, and of course Natalie's acting. The fact that swan lake is a huge part of it is just an added bonus.

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• RR

  @Rrenklaric · 11 years ago

  she is an actress not a dancer, so she did a perfect job!

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