Natalie Portman‘s dancing double from the film Black Swan is claiming that she deserves more credit than she’s gotten since the film’s release.
The ballerina who served as a dancing double for Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winnning role in Black Swan tells EW she has been the victim of a “cover-up” to mislead the public about how much dancing Portman actually did in the film. “Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie,” says Sarah Lane, 27, an American Ballet Theatre soloist who performed many of the film’s complicated dance sequences, allowing Portman’s face to be digitally grafted onto her body. “All the other shots are me.”
Lane’s claim follows a March 23 L.A. Times article in which Portman’s fiancé and Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied said Lane’s work in the film was far less significant. “There are articles now talking about her dance double [American Ballet Theatre dancer Sarah Lane] that are making it sound like [Lane] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio,” he said. “Honestly, 85 percent of that movie is Natalie.”
Today even Mila Kunis came to her friend Natalie Portman‘s defense.
“Natalie danced her a– off,” says Kunis. “I think it’s unfortunate that this is coming out and taking attention away from [the praise] Natalie deserved and got.”
Kunis also says Portman has been honest about how much of the demanding footwork she was — and wasn’t — able to do. “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,” she says. “[Lane] wasn’t used for everything. It was more like a safety net. If Nat wasn’t able to do something, you’d have a safety net. The same thing that I had — I had a double as a safety net. We all did. No one ever denied it.”
Sarah Lane just looks desperate and silly here, what kind of recognition does she want? They don’t have a Best Double Oscar now do they? She was hired to do the job, she did it and got paid, I don’t see why she’s complaining. I’m sure there were about 20 qualified dancers that could have done the exact same thing, yet she’s still whining. I bet she’s ruined her chances of doubling for anyone else in hollywood again. I’m glad the choreographer and Mila Kunis set the record straight here. Even if he didn’t say 85% of the movie was Natalie Portman, she deserved the Oscar for her whole performance, not for dance steps. Does this story remind anyone else of the plot from the movie? Just saying.
Source: EW, EW
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