Actress Natalie Portman has opened up about her most difficult filming experience, which could have cost her her life.
If Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan remains one of its director’s most famous films, it is undoubtedly thanks to Natalie Portman’s die-hard performance. But at what cost did the actress get so involved?
In the famous New York City Ballet, competition is everywhere within the troupe, especially because Nina (Natalie Portman) is ready to make all the sacrifices and backstabbing to get the leading role in Swan Lake, which the choreographer is preparing. Thomas (Vincent Cassel). When a new recruit, Lily (Mila Kunis), arrives, the competition rises to a whole new level…
Warner Bros. Natalie Portman
To prepare for the role, the actress invested physically (by taking a year of dance classes and losing weight) and financially (by paying for said classes while waiting for the film to get the green light from the studio). It was she who suggested that Mila Kunis play her rival and she performed “90%” of the dance scenes according to the director. The close-up scenes on the feet and the whipped people in particular were produced by a stunt double, Sarah Lane, who will claim not to have had the recognition she deserved.
But the filming was so intense and the scenes so mentally and physically difficult for Portman – she regularly injured herself, particularly her toe – that she thought she might lose her life on set, as she told Entertainment Weekly (via THE HuffPost):
There were nights I literally thought I was going to die. It was the first time I realized that you can get so involved in a role that it can drag you down.
Portman also says in this interview that the studio didn’t know how to sell the film to the public. And here is the answer he gave to this question:
“Everyone was worried about who was going to want to see such a film. I remember them saying: ‘How do we convince men to see a ballet film? How do we convince women to see a thriller? We’re going to put a scene lesbian, everyone wants to see that.”
Warner Bros.
Ultimately, Black Swan is a dive into the heart of the rivalries and ambitions driving some of the very high-level dancers. The film explores the physical and mental consequences of pushing yourself to compete to this extent. Even if it is far from being free of flaws – notably falling into psychophobia – Black Swan is an intense psychological thriller nominated for 5 Oscars and earned Natalie Portman the statuette for Best Actress.
If you are a subscriber and want to see or rediscover the film, it is available on Disney+.