Natalie Portman Quashes 'Black Swan' Dancing Feud

By Sarah Crow Posted Apr 7th 2011 01:30PM

Natalie Portman has a lot of things going for her -- an Oscar win, a loving fiance and a baby on the way, to name a few -- but a recent, highly-publicized disagreement with a dancer from 'Black Swan' has momentarily eclipsed the actress's good fortune.

Following Portman's Oscar win, her 'Black Swan' dance double, Sarah Lane, announced to the press that the actress had done very little of her own dancing in the film.

"Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie," Lane told Entertainment Weekly. "They wanted to create this idea in people's minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy ... It is demeaning to the profession."

While Portman's 'Black Swan' co-star Mila Kunis and director Darren Aronovsky came to the actress's defense, Portman had remained mum about the controversy until now.

"I know what went on and we had an amazing experience making the movie," says Portman. "I don't want to tarnish it by entering into nastiness."

Prior to the film's release, the actress admitted to having a dance double, telling EW, "I do have a double for the complicated turning stuff. It was not anything I ever could have done in a year, nothing I could've caught up with. But I think it was just better for all of us if I did as much as possible."

Despite the conflicting reports over Portman's dancing in the movie, the actress has nothing but positive things to say about her experience working on the film.

"It's such a positive thing what we get to do," Portman tells E! of her time on set. "We get to create things. I'm really proud of everyone's work on the movie and of my experience... I'll have that forever, so it's nice for me to know about that no matter what kind of nastiness or gossip is going around."

Tags: natalie Portman

Comments

(39)

Thursday 07 April

By Bubbles

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No one is dumb enough to believe Natalie did the dancing but more than that NO ONE REALLY CARES.

Friday 08 April

By dc walker

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...........this was a movie where the director didn't know how to craft the story......watching it half the time I didn't know whether we were in one of her dream sequences or it was reality...

By Anna

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Natalie needs to admit the oscar goes to......ANYONE ELSE.
Shes not Oscar caliber, more like Diaz,Annuston,& sex and the city dogs.

By Joe

Anna you are an idiot.

By Kelly

No, Anna, you're not. She did NOT deserve the Oscar.

By joan

WRONG ANNA!!! You could not have done what Natalie did in that film and so what if she did not do the dancing, she did do fantastic acting and got rewarded for it. She is a lady in every sense and is and has showed nothing but being a lady.

By Lynn

I'd like to know if you even saw the movie Anna. She did an outstanding job ACTING in that role, which is her job. She never claimed to be a dancer. That is what doubles are for. Sounds like a case of sour grapes on the part of the double. In any case, it was a great film, and a well deserved award for Natalie. But you are entitled to your opinion. My opinion, you and Kelly are morons.

By visconti24

A marginal performer with a very limited range, but Oscars are not always awarded for great acting. And now, what? Does she expect to get the parts formerly offered to Merryl Streep or Dame Maggie Smith?

By lisa

She was incredible in "Black Swan" but I did think she was better in "Closer" and in "Garden State". Plus, the movie was about a dancer going mad; the dancing was just her character's job. It does not matter if there was a dance double. There was a dance double in "Flash Dance" too. So what?

By Irina

Natali you the best!!!! You deserve the OCKAR long time ago. Be strong "WALMART girl"!!!

By Christine

Did the extra get paid for her role? Of course. She knew she was playing an extra when she took the role. That is the end of it.

Friday 29 July

By yowza

That is the best answer..
I couldn't agree with you more...

By Mikey

I could not agree more . . . brilliant. The actress was paid to act. The dancer was paid to dance. End of story.

Whether Natalie deserved the Oscar or not, she has it. Case closed. By the way, I totally think she deserved it!! Great film and cast.

By cohara1950

La-La Land a bunch of dysfunctional a**holes. The only thing sadder is the people that fawn and fall all over them.

By Scooterrr

Its funny when actors say they have trained non stop for months to do the Dancing, Martial Arts, etc. If that were the truth, how did you pump out 3-5 movies the last year or so? Riiiight, you didnt. It was a stunt double. They can edit your head on anyones body these days. Look at Captain America and the main characters body before and after. Edited.

By Eve

You do realize that sometimes movies get filmed and don't get released as much as up to a year or two later, when they have the financing right? Just because you see a lot of movies with the same actor in the same year, doesn't mean that they were just filmed a couple of months ago and then came out in theaters.

LMAO. Wow. And how do they get all of those little people inside that box in your living room everyday? And where do they go when you go to sleep?

That made my day to read. Thanks.

Long live Hollywood!! (Reality stinks.)

Sunday 17 April

By Mary

May I point out the obvious to everyone who seems to have missed the point: Natalie won the "Best Actress" Oscar for her ACTING in the Black Swan movie. It was not the "Best Dancer" Oscar. SHE DID NOT WIN FOR DANCING so in no way does her having a dance double lower the quality of the acting she did in the movie. Jeez.

By Ernest DeBrew

Well, what matters is the truth, right?

By Brance

Well, Natalie is a Jew. What do you expect from Hollywood?

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