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Black Swan dance double controversy
The Black Swan dance double controversy concerns an American film and the credit its production gave to performers. Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror film about a ballerina directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. After the 83rd Academy Awards, where Portman won Best Actress for her performance in the film as a ballerina, controversy arose over how much credit for the dancing in the film was being given to her and how much to her "dance double", American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane.
In a March 3, 2011 blog post (written prior to the DVD release) for Dance Magazine, its editor-in-chief Wendy Perron asked why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's had been available online but was removed prior to the Oscars. She also speculated as to whether Portman's omission of Lane's name during her acceptance speech was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" It was also noted that Lane is credited as "Lady in the Lane" and as "Stunts" rather than as Portman's double in the theatrical release of the film. This led to a number of responses regarding Portman. Aronofsky and Fox Searchlight issued a joint statement, arguing: "We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film." Benjamin Millepied and Kunis also argued in defense of Portman's dancing. Lane responded through an essay published in The Wall Street Journal (Portman declined through a representative to write one as well) and an interview on 20/20 that her interest lies primarily in defense of ballet as an art form that cannot be mastered in a year.
The DVD of Black Swan was released on March 29, 2011 and includes the featurette with Sarah Lane.
The film's director Darren Aronofsky stated in a July 2010 interview: "Most of these women who are here started dancing when they were 4, 5, or 6 years old. Their bodies are shaped differently because they started so young. She was able to pull it off. Except for the wide shots when she has to be en pointe for a real long time, it's Natalie on screen. I haven't used her double a lot." Another time when asked whether Portman did all the dancing, he replied "Not everything, but a lot of it. That shot, in the opening prologue when she walks off into the light and she’s flapping her wings, and she’s on pointe, that is 100%, untouched, no digital Natalie Portman. When the camera pulls out on her and she’s on top of the ramp and she’s bleeding, and she’s on pointe, right before she jumps—that is Natalie Portman en pointe".
In a November 29, 2010 interview, Portman's other dance double, Kimberly Prosa, also added: "Natalie took class, she studied for several months, from the waist up is her. Sarah Lane a soloist at ABT, did the heavy tricks, she did the fouettés, but they only had her for a limited time, a couple of weeks, so I did the rest of whatever dance shots they needed." In addition, Portman said in an interview with MSN: "I did everything, and the dance double — Sarah Lane, who's a really wonderful dancer — they shot us both doing everything, but because most of the film is in close-up, they're able to use me. The parts I couldn't do were because it's doing very complicated turns en pointe. They would shoot me doing it in flat shoes and Sarah doing it in pointe shoes and find a way to make that work." She also stated in a November 2010 interview with WBUR that "there's a wonderful dancer, Sarah Lane, who did the more complicated pointe work. But I did the stuff that was possible to learn in a year."
In December 2010, Lane also gave an interview to Kina Poon of Dance Magazine in which she responds to the question "and how does it feel to be part of a performance that some critics are giving Natalie Portman rave reviews for?" by saying that "I'm not really looking for any sort of recognition. The process was a huge learning experience and I got everything I wanted out of it. But [Portman] deserves the recognition. She worked really hard." Lane's involvement in Black Swan was also mentioned in two other dance magazines and in an article on The New York Times website.
After the Oscar ceremony on February 27, 2011 in which Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress and where she thanked many people but did not mention Lane, dancer and editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine Wendy Perron published a March 3, 2011 blog post in which she asks why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's was once available online but later removed from the Internet prior to the Oscars. She also speculates as to whether Portman deliberately did not mention Lane, by asking if this was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" Perron also asks, "Do people really believe that it takes only one year to make a ballerina? We know that Natalie Portman studied ballet as a kid and had a year of intensive training for the film, but that doesn't add up to being a ballerina. However, it seems that many people believe that Portman did her own dancing in Black Swan."
Perron followed up the next week with a second blog post on the subject. She interviewed Lane, who states that she did not expect to be named during Portman's acceptance speech because a Fox Searchlight producer had asked her to stop giving interviews until after the Oscars were over: "They were trying to create this façade that [Portman] had become a ballerina in a year and a half ... So I knew they didn't want to publicize anything about me." Perron then states that Lane "says she was more offended by that myth than any slight to her as a dancer who worked 'painstaking' hours on the set. She says she's talked to her colleagues about 'how unfortunate it is that, as professional dancers, we work so hard, but people can actually believe that it's easy enough to do it in a year. That's the thing that bothered me the most."
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Black Swan dance double controversy
The Black Swan dance double controversy concerns an American film and the credit its production gave to performers. Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror film about a ballerina directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. After the 83rd Academy Awards, where Portman won Best Actress for her performance in the film as a ballerina, controversy arose over how much credit for the dancing in the film was being given to her and how much to her "dance double", American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane.
In a March 3, 2011 blog post (written prior to the DVD release) for Dance Magazine, its editor-in-chief Wendy Perron asked why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's had been available online but was removed prior to the Oscars. She also speculated as to whether Portman's omission of Lane's name during her acceptance speech was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" It was also noted that Lane is credited as "Lady in the Lane" and as "Stunts" rather than as Portman's double in the theatrical release of the film. This led to a number of responses regarding Portman. Aronofsky and Fox Searchlight issued a joint statement, arguing: "We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film." Benjamin Millepied and Kunis also argued in defense of Portman's dancing. Lane responded through an essay published in The Wall Street Journal (Portman declined through a representative to write one as well) and an interview on 20/20 that her interest lies primarily in defense of ballet as an art form that cannot be mastered in a year.
The DVD of Black Swan was released on March 29, 2011 and includes the featurette with Sarah Lane.
The film's director Darren Aronofsky stated in a July 2010 interview: "Most of these women who are here started dancing when they were 4, 5, or 6 years old. Their bodies are shaped differently because they started so young. She was able to pull it off. Except for the wide shots when she has to be en pointe for a real long time, it's Natalie on screen. I haven't used her double a lot." Another time when asked whether Portman did all the dancing, he replied "Not everything, but a lot of it. That shot, in the opening prologue when she walks off into the light and she’s flapping her wings, and she’s on pointe, that is 100%, untouched, no digital Natalie Portman. When the camera pulls out on her and she’s on top of the ramp and she’s bleeding, and she’s on pointe, right before she jumps—that is Natalie Portman en pointe".
In a November 29, 2010 interview, Portman's other dance double, Kimberly Prosa, also added: "Natalie took class, she studied for several months, from the waist up is her. Sarah Lane a soloist at ABT, did the heavy tricks, she did the fouettés, but they only had her for a limited time, a couple of weeks, so I did the rest of whatever dance shots they needed." In addition, Portman said in an interview with MSN: "I did everything, and the dance double — Sarah Lane, who's a really wonderful dancer — they shot us both doing everything, but because most of the film is in close-up, they're able to use me. The parts I couldn't do were because it's doing very complicated turns en pointe. They would shoot me doing it in flat shoes and Sarah doing it in pointe shoes and find a way to make that work." She also stated in a November 2010 interview with WBUR that "there's a wonderful dancer, Sarah Lane, who did the more complicated pointe work. But I did the stuff that was possible to learn in a year."
In December 2010, Lane also gave an interview to Kina Poon of Dance Magazine in which she responds to the question "and how does it feel to be part of a performance that some critics are giving Natalie Portman rave reviews for?" by saying that "I'm not really looking for any sort of recognition. The process was a huge learning experience and I got everything I wanted out of it. But [Portman] deserves the recognition. She worked really hard." Lane's involvement in Black Swan was also mentioned in two other dance magazines and in an article on The New York Times website.
After the Oscar ceremony on February 27, 2011 in which Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress and where she thanked many people but did not mention Lane, dancer and editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine Wendy Perron published a March 3, 2011 blog post in which she asks why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's was once available online but later removed from the Internet prior to the Oscars. She also speculates as to whether Portman deliberately did not mention Lane, by asking if this was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" Perron also asks, "Do people really believe that it takes only one year to make a ballerina? We know that Natalie Portman studied ballet as a kid and had a year of intensive training for the film, but that doesn't add up to being a ballerina. However, it seems that many people believe that Portman did her own dancing in Black Swan."
Perron followed up the next week with a second blog post on the subject. She interviewed Lane, who states that she did not expect to be named during Portman's acceptance speech because a Fox Searchlight producer had asked her to stop giving interviews until after the Oscars were over: "They were trying to create this façade that [Portman] had become a ballerina in a year and a half ... So I knew they didn't want to publicize anything about me." Perron then states that Lane "says she was more offended by that myth than any slight to her as a dancer who worked 'painstaking' hours on the set. She says she's talked to her colleagues about 'how unfortunate it is that, as professional dancers, we work so hard, but people can actually believe that it's easy enough to do it in a year. That's the thing that bothered me the most."