Earlier this week, we covered an interview the Los Angeles Times did with Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman’s baby-daddy and choreographer on Black Swan. Benjamin seemed to be defending (sort of) Natalie from criticism that there was perhaps a white-washing regarding her ballet skills in Black Swan. Natalie’s “stunt ballerina” Sarah Lane had given an interview in December where she claimed people from the studio “were trying to create this facade that she had become a ballerina in a year-and-a-half. So I knew they didn’t want to publicize anything about me.” Natalie had talked a lot about how much work she did – more than a year of preparation in ballet and dance, transforming her body and losing weight – in many interviews while promoting Black Swan. Benjamin backed her up in the LAT interview, saying that “85%” of what you see on film is actually Natalie. So, of course, Sarah Lane had to give yet another interview, and this time she’s really bringing it:
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.”
Lane disagrees. “The shots that are just her face with arms, those shots are definitely Natalie,” she says. “But that doesn’t show the actual dancing.” Lane admits that she was never promised a particular title for her six weeks of work on the film, though she was disappointed to see that she is credited only as “Hand Model,” “Stunt Double,” and “Lady in the Lane” (a brief walk-on role).
Lane also says that Black Swan producer Ari Handel specifically told her not to talk about her work to the press, even though she claims there was no such stipulation in her contract. “They wanted to create this idea in people’s minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance and really worked so hard to make herself a ballerina in a year and a half for the movie, basically because of the Oscar,” says Lane. “It is demeaning to the profession and not just to me. I’ve been doing this for 22 years…. Can you become a concert pianist in a year and a half, even if you’re a movie star?”
Reps for Portman, Fox Searchlight, and Handel have yet to provide comments on the matter.
Lane is barely seen in promotional materials for the movie, including a VFX reel posted by studio Fox Searchlight that appears to show all the digital alterations made to key dance sequences. An unverified version of that reel, leaked to YouTube, seems to shows how digital face replacement was used to put Portman’s head on Lane’s body. (The clip was included in a blog post by Dance Magazine‘s Wendy Perron, who wrote about Lane’s story earlier this month.)
According to Lane, Portman’s dramatic transformation into a ballerina — a narrative firmly at the center of her successful Oscar campaign — wasn’t as impressive as the public was led to believe. “I mean, from a professional dancer’s standpoint, she doesn’t look like a professional ballet dancer at all and she can’t dance in pointe shoes. And she can’t move her body; she’s very stiff,” says Lane. “I do give her a lot of credit because in a year and a half she lost a lot of weight and she really tried to go method and get into a dancers head and really feel like a ballet dancer.”
In interviews, Portman didn’t hide the fact that she had used a body double for key sequences in the film, though Lane’s name, and the extent of her work, were played down.
“I do have a double for the complicated turning stuff,” Portman told EW last November. “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.”
Lane insists she isn’t speaking out of jealousy over Portman’s acclaim. “[Natalie] is an amazing actress, for sure,” she says. “I know that it’s not a personal thing against me. I know that it’s just a political thing. It’s just unfortunate that I kind of lost credit.”
[From Entertainment Weekly]
While it does sound like Lane has a larger axe to grind than lost credit, I completely agree with many of her points, especially “They wanted to create this idea in people’s minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance and really worked so hard to make herself a ballerina in a year and a half for the movie, basically because of the Oscar…It is demeaning to the profession and not just to me. I’ve been doing this for 22 years…. Can you become a concert pianist in a year and a half, even if you’re a movie star?” I’d like to see Portman refute that. I really would.
And seriously, what would it hurt for Darren Aronofsky to come out and seriously discuss how much Lane was utilized in the final film, and what Natalie’s year of preparation really got her as far as quality? She’s got the Oscar already – they can’t take it back. If these accusations just sit around, hanging in the air, Natalie’s Oscar win does seem tainted, and like the campaign was waged on false pretenses.
Just to play devil’s advocate and actually go pro-Portman (I know, shocking!), as I said, it does sound like Lane has an axe to grind. Perhaps it’s about money, perhaps about the film production wasting her time, perhaps it’s about her genuinely feeling insulted by being ignored. Or maybe Natalie really did do a lot of her own dancing, and Lane is just a famewhore trying to get attention. But if that was the case, why didn’t she speak up during the Oscar campaign, when it actually would have gotten so much attention?
So who do you believe – the self-proclaimed wronged ballerina, or Smugface Conceiving The Conception Portman and her Ballet Famewhore K-Fed?
UPDATE: The studio released a statement about Lane’s comments. The official response: “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.” MOST is not technical enough. I want a percentage!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
All of this would have been mute if Natalie had just said two words Thank You to the real dancer. It was rude of her not to thank her even if you believe the bullshit that she only did 15% of the dancing.
@mln
ITAWY.. I think it would have been awesome if she praised the dancer.. maybe just to acknowledge how difficult dancing is and how much work real dancers must go through.
I think she and her guy gave the very FALSE impression that she was this prodigy and became a premier ballerina over night.
Actors have stunt doubles and stand in all the time. Some actors even go out of the way to acknowledge those people and their talent. The difference here is that Natalie and her boyfriend have been spouting off all over about her “dancing”. I think that is what got Lane upset. They in affect were trying to erase her contribution.
Why was it hard to just say that the woman’s talents were utilized Natalie I suppose got the Oscar for acting.
come on!!!!!if you watch the film you can totally tell that Natalie is not the one that does the dancing.she just moves her arms in close ups.seriously a “thank you” to Sara would be more then enough to avoid this.but everyone was so obsessed about the damn golden statue that they forgot the basics.imagine how the film would be like with no body-double just imagine.even if Sara is lying and she only did the 15% percent that ballet K-Fed claims i bet that that was the percentage with the most difficult moves…
This is a debate over semantics. Ballet KFed’s saying 85% of the overall dancing scenes are Natalie and he mentioned the camera work and tight shots helping to create the feeling of dance. Pressed Stunt Double is saying 5% of the full body shots are Natalie. That’s not contradictory because Pressed Stunt Double is only talking about the full body shots and Ballet KFed’s including the tight shots while Natalie was dancing.
They’re probably both exaggerating with 85% and 5% estimations.
I’m on Team Meh.
I’ve read it awhile back on ONTD and like most people there couldn’t really see what’s the problem.
This movie isn’t really about a ballet, ballet world there is just a scenery for the drama. And no one in their right mind would expect Natalie doing all the dancing herself anymore than we expect actors doing all the jumping out of the windows and other stunts in action movies. And we never hear Oscar winners thanking their stunt doubles, why the outrage now?
On the other hand you can’t deny that Natalie worked a lot on her physic for this movie and that included intense ballet lessons. She herself never uttered a word about being a perfect ballerina, quite the opposite. Other people did praise her but it’s their opinion, they’re entitled to it. I don’t know that they (all) were lying, I’ve heard nice words about her performance from people who are very into ballet and would be able to tell the difference. It seems that for an actress who had a limited time for preparation she did OK. And her having body doubles for things that she couldn’t possibly do herself (according to those in the know including Lane) is standard practice for make believe universe of the movies.
And I know everyone is prejudiced against her fiancee but I think we should remember he’s in love and all and allow for his partiality 🙂
I’ve been waiting for this. I really hoped that the interview her man gave would set this off. IT really was disrespectful.
Lisa called it. They were seriously minimizing her contribution.
Unfortunately, the way the Sarah Lane went about calling them out doesn’t bode well for her future in dancing. It’s a small world, the dance community. This will be remembered.
Let me channel my inner Nelson here, point at Natalie and say HAHA.
I am team burned ballerina!
I dont think it sounds like an axe to grind..I think she finally had the last straw, [Ben-Fed] of these people who have more power than her, downplaying her existence! I actually think she kept it professional, I mean, she must have worked closely with Natalie, she could have given us some dirt!
min- ITA with you too – if just once Natalie could have thanked her AND you know, as much as the dancing community may like that there is this movie portraying the life, I am sure it would have meant a LOT to them to have the actress and people involved in this film to acknowledge that one CANNOT learn these skills quickly.
Lastly, Natalie is probably now taking piano lessons, I imagine her saying, “I CAN become a concert pianist!” [in a huff]
In last week’s Natalie thread, @Valerie said it very well when she basically said that ballet is NOT DWTS. Even I, who knows nothing about ballet, understand that ballet is a decades-long sacrifice and commitment of mind and body for which only the prima dancers earn recognition.
I can understand Sarah Lane’s frustration with the producers portrayl of Portman, as I can understand the frustration of all the stunt people, body doubles, and other professionals who do not get credit for their craft.
Co-sign @mln76
Lane’s dancing was of the same importance to the role as work of the CGI guys, really. She wasn’t even the only body double involved.
He contribution was all about the scenery, background details. The drama wasn’t about how many difficult ballet moves were on screen and how real they looked to the professional dancers and if the actual choreography was special in any way and so on. Those are minor details that are there to create an illusion of a big detailed world, there were lots of them, all thanks to dedicated and creative work of other people. It would be really tiresome if Natalie decided to thank them all personally. Her speaches were tedious enough as they were.
And I’m not stanning here, in my opinion if anyone deserved an Oscar in that movie it was Vincent Cassel. Natalie was rather one note to me.
Of course this was all about Natalie Bitchface Portman being hailed as a ballerina savant that was able, (through sheer force of guts and enormous talent,) (gag) to convincingly portray a woman who had dedicated HER LIFE to dance and therefore really SHOULD be awarded both the Oscar and your undying admiration. I think Natalie went out of her way to portray herself as the primary dancer, and it just showed what a self serving bitch she is when she didn’t acknowledge the other dancer. I think I’d have a bug up my ass too if I’d spent my entire life becoming this fabulous dancer and then some actress wins a huge award off my back with no acknowledgment.
FYI I heard this story last year, before the Oscars. But it never got much traction, likely because of the studio trying to damp it down.
I’d say that Lane is looking for spotlight time, this is her big chance to be noticed. I also don’t doubt that Portman didn’t do 85% of the dancing, she’s an actress, not a ballerina. In the same way that actors don’t usually do their own stunts, because there are professionals who you can hire to do it for them. What I am surprised about is that there was no confidentiality agreement in place about Lane going to the press to contradict the “official press line”. I would have thought that would be standard.
Is there really somebody who genuinely believed that the one who dances was Natalie?
Of course it was a body double, but when you see Natalie exercising or moving her arms she’s believable nonetheless.
And IMO having a body like hers, a body that really look’s like a dancer’s one, is a miracle.
Of course the production wanted to make people believe that that dancer was her, it’s Hollywood, everything turns around ephemeral appereance, money and above all lies that people love to believe in. It’s not even the first time that happens something like that.
She didn’t won that Oscar for dancing, by the way, she won for acting psycho.
PS: Natalie wasn’t the only one who claimed how hard it was to exercise, to diet etc. Also Mila Kunis said that, and surely also Mila Kunis had a body-double.
the movie is about Black swan and natalie playing the character.
Lane is a double, period.
So many doubles out there that actually did more stunts than the main character but you cannot hear that they should be promoted because the movie is not about them.
And why she has to be credited all the time? She was paid for the job and thats all about it.
Black Swan sold lots of tickets because it was Natalie Portman – stiff body or bad dancer she might be.
I would be surprised if nat has no double.Dancing that great was not expected from her and please, it is a MOVIE. I havent heard any studio people complaining they were not credited because they are the one who made Superman fly in all his movies.
I laugh when she said nat cant even move her body. She sounded very insecure.
So, basicaly Aronofsky could either hire a good actrees who’d do a good job at creating a character and – with the help of dance double, CGI, skilled cameraman, creative choreographer etc – do a passable job in dancing scenes. Or he had to hire a real ballerina and what, hire her an acrees double? I think it’s possible now, with a lot of effort from CGI department but definitely 13mil wouldn’t be enough to make such a movie.
I’m Team Ballerina, too.
Why? Just like Sarah Laine said…she’s been at this for 22 Years. I know that ballet was just the “back-drop,” but that being said..what would this movie BE w/out the back-drop of ballet?
Natalie TRIED to acknowlege..as best she could being another yet self-important “star,” but if she’d JUST SAID THANK YOU…we ALL KNOW how much a THANK YOU means. If she’d just acknowledge Sarah BY NAME. Twenty-two years is a lifetime…and it’s SAD that a lifetime, a choice of ballet for a lifetime couldn’t be acknowledged.
I saw the movie twice. And I never thought Natalie did much of the dancing herself.
I absolutely believe Sarah Lane.
It’s ridiculous to think any person can become a ballerina and dance scenes like that in just one and a half year. Ridiculous.
By the way, that goes for ALL sports, dancing etc. pp.
You don’t become a professional in that short amount of time. Not even if you are Natalie Portman.
Millepied is a bit pathetic, I think. Trying to praise his lovely Natalie over the top. Sad. That great movie does not deserve this.
I understand her frustrations, but this is show business sweetheart. And, that’s how things are. Honestly, who actually thought Natalie did all the dancing herself? And, I didn’t even see the movie. Even the actors and actresses who do their own stunts acknowledge they have stunt doubles, so it’s not like anyone is under any illusions that Natalie didn’t have a double for the movie. I mean, come on.
Yes, Natalie should have thanked Lane. And, her fiance’s comments were definitely overboard. But, it’s done and over with and I agree with the comment that they were both probably exaggerating. Calling her out in the press isn’t going to change anything and it really does make it seem to me like this dancer is doing this for the fame. People wouldn’t be talking about it otherwise. I also agree with the comment that this will not bode well for Sarah’s future in dancing, as it will definitely be remembered in the dancing community.
For all of those people appealing to the viewer’s common sense, making the argument that OF COURSE Natalie couldn’t have done all of the dancing – you realize that argument wasn’t used during the Oscar campaign, right? That’s the point of this – and I think Lane wouldn’t have been this upset if only her contributions hadn’t been pushed aside and white-washed in the name of The Perfect and Brilliant Natalie Portman, whose every bowel movement is High Art.
I think she should have brought this up during the Oscar campaign. Seems pretty useless now. You know Natalie is going to snort and completely ignore her. I feel bad though, she should have received the proper credit where it was deserved.
I do think that Natalie put a lot of work into her role, and she probably did train hard, but I agree that you can’t make someone a professional ballerina in one year. When watching the movie, I figured that Natalie was pretty much the face shots, and the rest were somebody, which is why you when you see the full body shots, they’re done from far away. Or you just see the feet in some shots.
who cares who did the dancing Nat didn’t earn that oscar the studio bribed the academy to vote for her to win totally different the last three actresse that have won recently that actually earned it were Reese Witherspoon Kate Winslet & Sandra Bullock. it’s not like it was in the old days when it was always on the merits of the stars talent that they were nominated or won though there are a bunch of great stars that were nominated multiple times and never won Lynn Redgrave Deborah Kerr Richard Burton & Peter O’toole all come to mind of course of those only O’toole is still alive
“I think she should have brought this up during the Oscar campaign. Seems pretty useless now.”
I think she wouldn’t have said anything at all. But then Millepied gave HIS interview, so she felt the need to speak out herself. What I understand completely.
Millepied just should have kept his mouth shut.
So who do you believe – the self-proclaimed wronged ballerina, or Smugface Conceiving The Conception Portman and her Ballet Famewhore K-Fed?
Sarah Lane, the wronged ballerina. And yes, Kaiser…her whole Oscar campaign sold the idea that it was Natalie Portman who did most of the dancing, when we knew that wasn’t possible. But you know, Hollywood wants us to believe actors are supernatural creatures who can do anything, even learning how to dance ballet in one and a half years.
Two body doubles were used and I even saw the picture of one of them (not Lane) where you can see the elements on her face while wearing an identical Black Swan’s makeup — they were used later to place Portman’s face on hers.
Portman’s dancing in this movie must be credited to her body doubles, the editing and CGI effects.
I’m not sure I really get the problem. The ballet dancing was not the acting part of the gig. I don’t see how it would affect Natalie’s oscar. It’s as if the guy that helped Armie Hammer play the twin in The Social Network came out and started demanding more respect. Does it matter? It was Armie’s face and acting that drove his story. Similarly with Natalie. I didn’t see Black Swan and decide that her acting was great because she pulled off some pirouettes. It was her acting that was great in the film.
I agree with Sarah that it’s demeaning to the profession and it’s cool she’s sticking up for herself. I don’t think it will hurt her professionally bc, the dance world will feel the same way.
I know that dancing in this movie is kind of secondary, however it’s still frustrating to those who care about ballet to have it portrayed that what Natalie did was of pro standards and that it can be achieved so easily. There was no memorable dance content in this film whatsoever.
Also love Sarah’s snarky comment that Natalie was “very stiff” and didn’t look like a pro dancer at all. Bitch needs to be taken down a peg.
@Kaiser: I doubt very much that the people voting in the Academy thought that Portman did the dancing either. I would imagine that it’s standard practise in HW to “overstate” things for publicity’s sake and I’m sure that every single member of the Academy has or would do exactly the same thing.
That’s how films are done. Being a double is a thankless and shitty job, but it’s what you sign on for. Should she have gotten a “thank you” by name from Natalie? ABSOULTELY. should she have expected it? Nope. And NO ONE in Hollywood, certainly not the members of the Academy, really thought she did ANY of the full body shots, much less 85% of them.
@Kaiser I admittedly didn’t read all of Portman’s interviews or follow the campaign that closely. I do remember the quotes from Portman about how hard she worked but I always assumed that was more about getting to the emotional truth of a ballerina’s mindset? But I also remember that quote from Natalie that’s in there about how the complicated stuff was nothing she could’ve managed to do herself based on the training she did.
In interviews, Portman didn’t hide the fact that she had used a body double for key sequences in the film. “I do have a double for the complicated turning stuff,” Portman told EW last November. “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.”
So I don’t really agree that the Oscar campaign was based on Natalie’s amazing dancing skills.
I don’t see how it would affect Natalie’s oscar. It’s as if the guy that helped Armie Hammer play the twin in The Social Network came out and started demanding more respect.
Sorry, Chris. Not nearly the same thing. All Hammer’s body double had to do was standing in the same position (in order to be replaced by Hammer himself with CGI) — perhaps mimic the way he walked or basic mannerisms. Hammer had to do his job twice anyway, so definitely not the same thing as Portman had two people to do the dancing part for her (most of the time).
Portman’s two body doubles did a hell of a work, that was edited in a way many people would believe it was Portman herself who did it. Also, as Kaiser said above, it felt like they (producers and even Aronofsky, by omission) wanted people to believe her dancing was part of this amazing, unprecedented work of an actress. That sure helped a lot her Oscar campaign.
EDIT: To be fair with Portman, she did aknowledge her body doubles’s work at some point. However, the closer to the Oscars the race was, the more you’d read about Portman’s amazing ballet skills alone.
@kaiser: Yes, a percentage would be nice. Or how about thanking Lane and actually identifying the “few sequences” Lane appeared in the film. Should be only a few, right? So why not be specific?
I think I recall seeing stunt people sequence listings in the credits next to their names at the end of certain films ( not sure if they did for this film). So why not divulge the info in this case to further backup you Oscar winning actress? Should be a short list for Lane, right studio people?
Thanks for the update.
This is one of the reasons I hate the Oscar campaigns of many actors. If they had not made such a big deal about the dancing, this would all be a mute point, BUT, they chose to make the miracle of Portman dancing like a pro a big part of the campaign.
Mr. “B P(i)ed” should have kept his mouth shut. That little interview is what brought this all to light, causing Ms. Lane to speak out. The problem is not Ms. Lane defending herself. A fellow dancer, even one “in love”, should have given another fellow dancer credit as he knows how hard it is to become proficient. To me, it just makes Mr and Mrs Portman look shoddy.
@courtney
Redgrave, Burton, O’toole never won an Oscar? I didn’t realize such wonderfully talented actors hadn’t won. To think Kim Kardashian will probably win one before she’s through!!
Always enjoy your informative posts.
uh, who thought Natalie did all of the dancing??
I didn’t, yeah she should have thanked Lane at the Oscar’s but she did get paid right??
god!!!! I thik Portman probably did 5%
its the acting, the drama that I was impressed with. I completely ignored all of the insinuations that Nat was “grueling” through this and that.
its the acting for me.
The Oscar campaign didn’t revolve around Natalie’s dance performance but around Natalie’s double faced character.
If Natalie is to blame for making people believe that she’s a dancer, why none of you blame Mila too? Mila who said exactly the same thing Natalie said. The main thing I can remember clearly of that campaign is Natalie and Mila saying how hard it was to loose weight, to exercise for many hours a day and how hard dancing was and Natalie sayin how hard it was to be herself again out of the set, and how she was haunted by Nina.
I guess it’s easy for some of you to fuel the hatred towards this woman, because she’s easy to hate. But she already thanked every single person who helped her through the making of that movie, and as flutters says above, Natalie has never claimed that she did all the job, that there wasn’t a body double.
Finally, two things:
1. I still believe that her training gave great results, her body can be compared to a dancer’s one: slim but also muscular (not as muscular and perfect as a dancer’s body, but nearly similar);
2. Beniamino Millepiedi did a great job training her because she looked like a ballerina in those few scenes where you can see Natalie dancing/exercizing.
This story to me is just about a ballerina Lane or whatever her name is who hates what Millipied said, and of course if Millipied said something wrong the one to blame is Natalie…
It’s a primadonna fight, and as it is it’s miserable.
I thought I read somewhere that Natalie had taken years of ballet as a child. Just wondering why is nobody throwing that into the mix.
I think this discussion is simply ridiculous. Why nobody cares about Spiderman’s, Bond’s, Batman’s, Croft’s stunts? In those movies they perform 85% of the job and the rest (15% i.e. acting) is trash. Studios are never precise about who did what. I think they applied the same criteria here. With the difference that in our case an almost unknown dancer (who is not an etoile, by the way) gained a great visibility that will benefit her career on the stage and for sure benefited her bank account.
The movie was not about how good the dance scenes were. And here we have a solid acting performance that deserved at least the Oscar nomination. In my opinion it deserved the award, too. I mean, I have seen so many mediocre performances gaining Oscars along the years, that Portman is an Eleonora Duse by comparison.
while i think it’s obvious that she had doubles, there are scenes where there was no cut-away (like the opening scene). also? adrien brody played a concert pianist in less than a year and won the oscar for it
Sorry but Natalie is an actress and she ACTED in the movie.
She didn’t get an Academy for best DANCER.
So this is all bull, because whatever she did/did’t do, doesn’t equate that she wasn’t able to pull off a very powerful performance.
She trained, she lost weight, she became a “dancer”: Method Acting – how is this any different from other actors.
The ballerina needs to STFU, because she was paid to do what she did, which is dance, and Natalie did what she was expected to do – ACT.
And on MANY occasions Natalie did say she had a double, she didn’t break it down scientifically, but it was always acknowledged.
Perhaps this would all be moot if Natalie had thanked the dancer. Maybe they didnt want another Flashdance, where all anyone talked about was how Jennifer Beals didn’t do the dancing (she did do ALL her own welding, though).
I absolutely love Lane’s bitchy “she did manage to lose a lotof weight in a year.” She’s probably thinking, “I’ve been starving for 22 Years!”
I can’t be the only ballerina on Celebitchy to have noticed how “stiff” Natalie looked at times in this movie. Right? A really stiff upper body in some shots.
Which brings me to the conclusion that a double (if not two or three) was used for a whole lot of scenes! Lots and lots.
A little praise for her body double(s) would have been a polite and respectful way to act towards the dancing community she was supposed to represent on the big screen. After all, Natalie has claimed many times this movie was so hard to make and took years to happen, blablabla. Fine, but if you’re going for the energy and time consuming argument, you might want to look behind your back and thank those who’ve done exactly the same to make that character believable and apparently Oscar-worthy (not in my opinion, though).
1000-feet sure likes to play on words and/or exaggerate. 85% meh…
@ Chris. The difference is that Artie Hammer did talk about the second person he worked with on the film and how they got along and how they had some similarities. There are even photos of them at events outside the film. The point is, these people know their jobs and roles but are human and want to be thanked for their work. Crew members get it and it is deserved, so why not doubles who they work next to for long hours for months and who play an important part of a successful scene or overall movie get the same. I agree with most, ballet K-Fed could not keep his shut and if Natalie was not so smug, this would not have been a headlining issue.
I remember Natalie giving an interview where she stated they were using a body double to do the tricky footwork and that she would do the upper body work. Sounds like this body double didn’t understand what her role would be, and wants more credit than she deserves. Wouldn’t be surprised if Millipied’s ex-girlfriend is egging her ballerina friends to trash Natalie in the press.
Sarah Lane has every right to speak up about her contributions to the movie. Every right. BFed is defending his baby’s mama, but he’s also throwing shade on his own profession.
It took him years to become the dancer he is, but Natalie can do it in a year & convincingly enough to do 85% of the footwork in the movie. Okay, BFed. That’ll do.
Natalie’s acting won the Oscar (personally wanted Kidman), but the movie benefited from the dancing.
Team Sarah!
Studios never give percentages. And I agree with this behaviour. Shooting a movie is a creative job, sometimes it’s even an art. In any case there must be some magic, some mistery to have people crowding the theatres. When I am sitting in the theatre for a couple of hours I want to believe that Daniel Craig is actually doing all his scenes. More than this, I want to believe he IS James Bond. I don’t care about his doubles’ performances, they are paid for it. I want to see the show I paid for.
j I disagree the level of dance she supposedly achieved was a factor in her oscar. If it wasn’t expected to be a factor the producers wouldn’t have cared if the truth came out.
Would you be happy to sit back and let someone else take credit and praise for work you actually did? She is allowed to correct false information. And she’s right that the impression they are trying to create by claiming Natalie could achieve this so easily is demeaning to the dance world.
I feel that the Baerina was dismissed and denied by the producers while they campaigned for the Oscar. There were far better actors than Pokeman and her baby bump.
Team Lane all the way.
The person who’s going to suffer the most professionally is Ballet K-Fed. If any of you think the ballet world is going to shun Sarah Lane over speaking up about this, you’re wrong. Benny is the one who’s going to get shunned- people devote years of practice to be halfway decent at ballet and he knows it, he lived it, that’s how he got his job on the movie set to begin with. The moment he goes to Hollywood he knocks up an actress and pretends she became as good as a soloist in a year while minimizing the contribution of a professional peer in order to make his booty call look like a prodigy? Oh yeah. Sayonara to your ballet career, Benny boy.
I am soooo tired of hearing about Portman AND this movie. I have said it before, while the movie was good, it was not great, and Portman and he acting were the two least interesting things about the film. We all know the studio is lying, because you can clearly see the parts Portman was dancing, and the parts that were spliced in of someone else.
Black Swan is my least favorite film of Aronofsky’s, it was overly hyped and quite a let down when you saw it. IMHO.
Finally saw Black Swan. I’m pretty sure most of the dance sequences were Natalie’s double. The movie starts off with showing a ballerina’s feet and that kind of sets up the premise for all the dancing scenes. You mostly see close ups of Natalie’s face and some turns but it’s always her face. I believe she did some of the lifts as well and maybe walked around the stage. But there is no way she danced most of that choreography. I believe she prepared physically for the movie but yeah no way she did most of the dancing in the movie. And they should have given the double more credit–it wouldn’t have detracted from the emotional performance Natalie gave.
Just read a good post on this topic @ huffpo by someone who attended an academy screening that portman, kunis and aronofsky spoke at. He said Aronofsky went out of his way to minimize the contribution of the double and only mentioned her once in an hr+ Q&A. The poster came away w/ the impression she had done a lot of tricky dance moves and that it my have been enough to sway a close race away from benning to portman. Especially among older voters who may not be as tech savvy about what can be achieved w/ special effects.
At the risk of being labeled the “grammar police,” the phrase is “moot point,” not “mute point” as two of the contributors opined. One of the writers – Mrs. Odie, got it right. I’m just sayin’ … Dr. Dan in Panama City, Florida
It is unfortunate that this dancer did not get more “public credit” for her contribution… but this is business and so she needed to make stipulations in her contract to that effect. It sucks, but it’s true.
Also, the truth is that 99% of the people who came to see this movie did so because of the psychological story line, the actors and the director. The dancing/ballet was not the draw. So this dancer actually was given a platform and an opportunity few dancers have to showcase her dancing to a large audience. She can make that point without it being about not getting credit. “While I was a double, I am so glad that 85% of the dancing in the film is me and that so many people around the world were able to see my dancing” Kill um with kidness… it works better and you’ll get more work. Her points are valid but the fact that she is so spiteful really looks like she’s being a bit of a “Black Swan” about the whole thing.
I never remember anyone saying that Natalie did any difficult dancing and in fact as has been posted by others, Natalie herself made it a point to say she didn’t and couldn’t have. She is basically saying the same thing that this dancer said. Natalie Portman did not get nominated or win an Oscar for her supposed dancing. She was recognized for the dedication it took to transform her physique and mental state into that of a dance to be able to convey that through acting.
No one really thinks that Christian Bale smoked crack/meth in order to act like a drug addict right? I mean he transformed his body and psyche. Lots of people talked about his transformation in the same way they did about Portman.
I think the ballerina sounds really petty and stupid. She was paid to make Natalie look good. She wasn’t the star of the movie and was paid to do a particular job. End of story.
This is just a dancer/body double throwing some shade. I never read anything suggesting that Portman performed as a ballerina. Never. She trained in order simulate the carriage in full and medium shots. I never read one thing suggesting she actually performed, en pointe, etc etc. And btw I thought the movie was mostly a fail.
I believe Sarah Lane and I think it is stupid of the studio and Portman’s baby daddy to try and lie about what she could or couldn’t do as far as ballet moves. I think these people forget that in this day and age the public is smarter than it used to be back in the day about movie stars and the PR bullshit that goes on with movies and the actor.
I think this did have something to do with the Oscar thing. Oscar campaigns are very big deals with the obvious aim to get the actor the Oscar. Misrepresenting what the person can do in any campaign is standard operating procedure.
And to the person who mentioned Adrian Brody in the pianist. Does anyone really think that the sound track of the piano playing is him playing the piano? Just because he was able to learn enough to look authentic when playing doesn’t mean he hit all the right notes and his playing was good enough to be recorded and used in the movie.
I don’t know if ballet can be downgraded to a ‘back-drop’ for the movie. It’s an integral part of the story.
I’m a little on the fence as I don’t know how much dancing the ballerina did vs Portman. I think Portman et al should be grateful Lane didn’t kick up a stink during the Oscar race. I would say the action guys never thank their stunt doubles but action guys don’t win Academy Awards…..
Remember Julia Roberts didn’t bother to thank Erin Brockovich when she won her Oscar. Actresses can be real bitches, aye?
If the movie was “Tightrope” the true story of the Flying Wallendas nobody would expect the actors to have done the dangerous stuff. Or if it were a movie about concert pianists, banjo players whatever….same thing. But the argument that “everybody knows they use stunt doubles” doesn’t fit here. Not only were those two little words “thank you” ever uttered toward those who contributed so much with their many years of dedication to their art but Portman & Dude make it out to be that Natalie pretty much did it all…it ain’t so hard and I had to get alllll skinny and everything. Oh…my struggle! Ugh. It is not what “we know” but, rather, the lies we are being fed by ingrates. The true measure of one’s character is generosity and it would have cost Portman not a damn thing to be generous toward a hard working fellow artist. IMHO
I don’t see what the fuss is all about…she already won the Oscar; a day late, a dollar short. I’m all for giving credit when it is due, but this fuss should have occured pre-Oscars. Also, you have to admit that Natalie’s acting performance, otherwise, was exceptional.
and how upset would portman be if she were in a movie, say about twins, and if she played one of the twins– the most challenging and difficult twin role– and the person playing the other twin, say camille grammar (someone without serious acting credentials), was credited with playing the roles of both twins? bet portman’s knickers would be in such a knot she’d be screaming from the rooftops about all the work she’d put into that role, the blood, the sweat, the tears. and gotten no credit for it. and she’d be right. stealing credit for someone else’s work is just flat wrong.
If Natalie Portman wasn’t so holier than thou about everything, we wouldn’t be discussing this. But she is, and even though she acknowledged she didn’t do it all, she could have said a “professional ballerina” did the tricky stuff rather than demeaning her work by calling her a body double. That’s what bugs me about Natalie Portman. And her douche boyfriend.
i’ve watched the black swan and if you have a discerning eye it’s pretty much easy to tell natalie isn’t the one dancing. all this propaganda to get her the oscar is bs and sickening because they don’t acknowledge the “other part” who made the natalie character better.
that’s why i really think nicole kidman in rabbit hole should deserve to win. nicole gave an understated performance and she has drawn the audience into her character.
What’s the big deal here? I didn’t see any remarkable dancing performance in the movie. As a matter of fact Sarah is not a universally acclaimed etoile (so far). She did the job she accepted to do and I am sure she got paid as per the contract she signed. Now after her interview she is having some visibility in the gossip mags, as well. Now I am sure she will have far more opportunities to show her real talent on the stage, if she has any. You know, ballet is not just hard work, technics fouettes and diagonals, it’s personality and charisma. Let’s see.
Anyway, the Oscar went to the actress, not to the dancer.
sarah lane sounds like she’s trying to get her 15 minutes. she was hired to be a double; she is not the star of the movie. it would be like matt damon’s stunt double in the borne movies whining because he didn’t get enough credit. no one believes matt damon did all his own stunts, and no one believes natalie did all her own dancing. but she DID transform her body for the role – anyone with eyes can see that. mila kunis had a double, too – why isn’t her double bitching about recognition?
also: i understand about years of working to perfect your art. i have played the cello for 28 years, and if i were hired as a double (to provide finger shots, etc) i would happily take my money and enjoy it. i would not feel the need to be thanked publicly every 5 seconds.
Regardless of what the truth actually is, this situation makes Natalie, her fiance, and her PR machine look like a-holes. Surprised? I’m not.
The issue of having a stunt/dance/body double almost never becomes an issue until the screen actor says something like “I did all my own stunts/dancing/etc”.
The movie-going public realizes that actors have stunt doubles, or dance doubles. it’s a given. but when an actor says “I did all my own stunts”, it’s a deliberate minimization of the importance (or overall existence) of a stunt double’s contribution.
The lack of a thank you isn’t usually an issue, but a deliberate slight is when a stunt person or a dancer will speak out. Which is kind of evident here, because Portman didn’t thank Lane in her speech, but Lane kept quiet. It’s was KFed2’s interview that made her speak out.
And in a situation like this where (as so many have pointed out) the minimizing of the dancer’s contribution was used to campaign for an award, it makes it even worse, IMO.
I am happy to Praise St. Angie! ITA with everything you said.
We’ve already seen real ballerinas try to act (“The Turning Point”) and it was NOT a pretty sight. There is no way Natalie did 85% of that dancing, it is not possible.
However…Ms. Ballet Double seems to forget that many VOICE DOUBLES (like Marni Nixon) were totally ignored and kept under a blanket for years because Hollywood did not want to admire actresses could not sing (hello natalie Wood).
Did Sarah get paid? Yes. Should she now be whining about her lack of screen credit? No. But….should she be disputing the 85% PERCENT Mr. K-Fed Ballet Baby Daddy keeps claiming? I say go for it.
Isn’t that how it works in Hollywood? Aren’t most dance/gymnastics/action sequences filmed by a double? When are they EVER thanked in an interview or acceptance speech? Seriously, percentages don’t matter, and neither does who danced when and how much. She is basically a stunt double.
I really think the dancer didn’t know how that all works when she agreed to the movie and expected instant fame or something and now she’s pissed because she didn’t get it. I feel bad for her, but unless actors are going to thank every stunt man or woman, then her complaint is baseless. And yeah they all say they do their own stunts and nobody believes them.
It’s Flashdance all over again!
Oh yeah lest I sound too sympathetic to Portman/Millepied I totally agree with those who say Lane wouldn’t have spoken up if not for Millepied’s snotty dismissal in the LA Times. He should’ve found a classier way to stand up for his fiancee’s performance. I don’t think there was wool being pulled over anybody’s eyes during the Oscar campaign but I don’t feel sorry for Portman/Millepied for having to deal with the fallout of Millepied’s interview.
@flutters (#4)
Have to agree. Both Millipied and the dancer could be talking the same numbers–it’s just phrased differently. If Millipied and the studio are counting the upper body shots as dancing (and they should–even if her feet weren’t shown, they were moving) then Portman did do most of it. Seems like a semantic debate.
And since stars never thank their body or stunt doubles, Portman is under no obligation to thank hers. Odds are they only even met once or twice.
Just because she is smug, pretentious, and got to make out with Mila Kunis, that doesn’t necessarily make her a liar.
@Isa: Yep, and Portman did about as much of her own dancing as Jennifer Beals did in Flashdance. 🙄
If anybody seriously believes you can become an accomplished ballerina in a year and a half, there’s some oceanfront property in Montana I’ll sell to you cheap.
Should have been Annette Bening anyway just cuz she seems cool. I havent seen this movie it seems kind of gross.
http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/December-2010/Quick-QA-Sarah-Lane
http://dancemagazine.com/blogs/wendy/3741
http://www.dancemagazine.com/blogs/wendy/3733
From the top interview it’s clear that SL was not expecting to be mentioned in NP’s Oscar speech. I don’t think that any regular movie goer thinks that NP did the dancing. The issue here is that for whatever reason the studio/publicity machine wanted to imply that NP did most of the dancing and asked that SL not talk about it until after the Oscars. Does anyone know if SL was actually given credit at the end of the movie as a body double or just as ‘Lady in the Lane’?
the dance double got her ‘thank you’ in the form of a job and a paycheck. and she will probably never work in a film again after embarrassing the star.
I know I didn’t go to see the film for the ballet moves, and mostly the majority of the moves were in the end during the Black Swan routine (which was definitely not the focal point at the end). I fully knew Natalie was not doing those moves, but it didn’t detract from it because she is just an Actress. I can see why Lane is angry, but she was a double as a dancer, not an actress. Perhaps she sees this as an opportunity to get her name out there a bit and become a well-recognized dancer.
What about Brad Pitt for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, or Adrien Brody for The Pianist? There are tons of “Best” actors and actresses that were nominated/winners who used doubles or some form of CGI to help them get to the Oscars. There is always a case for it.
The traditional use of a body double in film has been to shoot the double neck down or from the back. The Black Swan goes one step further and grafts Natalie’s face onto Sara’s body. When you view the ballerina in motion you are really seeing a composite of two people but the recognition is all Natalie. That’s where I think Sara has a valid point. She’s not just a body double that they cut to for footwork, she’s a visible and integral part of every dance scene in the movie.
People are so judgmental of Natalie. She did thank a lot of people (more so than any other Academy award winner I can remember), so it bothers me that people are painting her as some sort of ungrateful bitch w/out knowing all the facts.
It’s presumptuous to say that Natalie even knew Sarah intimately unless you see the shooting script and see what interaction there was between the two. There might have been very little. It’s not like people imagine. They shoot the film with the lead actor, and then the director yells cut, “And, now bring in the REAL dancer!” That’s not the way things work out. Sometimes, the sequences without the lead are shot by second unit, etc. Again, you would have to see the shooting script before you make the judgment call.
On the set of a film I worked on, the lead actor never even met his stunt double. They shot the action sequences with the lead and the stuntman on different days. Then, the director told the lead actor that the stunt was “ALL him” and that he’s “SO brilliant.” That actor still thinks he did most of his stunts. Movies are like ass-kiss rodeo and everyone fluffs up the big actor’s ego.
Meanwhile, stuntmen (who are artists in their own right) risk life and limb with NO acknowledgment. I dated a stuntman once and he told me about a guy who died doing a crazy stunt. Yet, there was NO acknowledgment from the producers or cast when the film came out. It’s very sad.
Overall, I think Sarah and stunt doubles should receive MUCH more acknowledgment of their hard work and artistry. (I doubt it because Hollywood operates on illusions and not on fairness.) But I don’t think painting Natalie as some bitch is quite fair just yet. Sorry for the long post.
Didn’t Millepied in an interview few months ago say that they filmed most of the movie with dancers seen only above the waist beacuse it was impossible for Natalie and other actresses to learn ballet in year and a half? And he also said that all of the remaining shots with dancing feet are not Natalie’s but from her double. I’ve read that in january before I saw the movie, so it was not a secret and I honestly don’t see a problem.
“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.”
So basically they consider arm flapping to be ballet? I feel like that’s what they’re giving Natalie Portman so much credit for. Arm flapping. Any move that was worth watching was done by Lane.
Edit: Also, I don’t think that the majority of people that saw this movie did so because it’s psychological and complex.
Girls saw this movie, for the most part, for the ballet. Guys saw this movie, for the most part, for the lesbian and sex scenes. People are not as complicated as some of you seem to think.
@Isa- I was thinking the same thing, Highbrow Flashdance, but I liked Flashdance a whole lot more.
Maybe Lane was legally NOT supposed to discuss her part until after the Oscars. (In her contract).
the dance double got her ‘thank you’ in the form of a job and a paycheck. and she will probably never work in a film again after embarrassing the star.
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I hope she’s one hell of a dancer and has no other Hollywood aspirations, because, yeah, she shot herself in the foot in an industry that tends to use certain people as the “goto” doubles for specialized shots (like the above mentioned Marni Nixon was the premiere goto vocalist). Doubles (body and stunt) are hired to do what they are hired to do and should not expect anything more. If I remember correctly, Sara Lane was in the closing credits of the film along with at least one other double.
Ah, I see I’m “she who must be moderated” again.
@ blank:
I absolutely saw it for the Aronofsky psychological complexity, and only for that reason. I don’t really care for ballet at all. And I think psychological complexity is at least as common a reason for choosing a movie as “pretty dancing” or “chicks kissing”. I did enjoy that the lesbian sex scene, too, though.
People are not all simpletons as you seem to think.
@Whatever I have heard Jeff Bridges talk about his body double who has been with him for decades. Also Angelina Jolie has been with the same stunt team (body double & stunt coordinator) since the Croft movies and has said she couldn’t / won’t work without them. Natalie is singularly ungrateful and tacky in her treatment of her double. The classy actors at leat have the grace to thank the “little people”.
At the end of the day, I have to agree that the whole issue is categorically Natalie’s fiance fault.
I understand that he is an established person in the ballet community, although limited in the world of celebrity – but he takes too many liberties with speaking in the press and about his fiance.
She should put a lid on him, before things turn uglier in the future.
I completely agree with min76 a simple thank you and act of gratitude like acknowledging the dance double in her acceptance speech would have gone a long way. I guess it is just difficult for egomaniacs and narcissists to realize that there are other people involved in the project that make positive contributions.
#25, exactly. I completely agree – well said.
#28, couldn’t have said it any better myself.
#37, that’s the thing. Should all stunt doubles or body doubles now be demanding more respect? They knew what they were signing up for when they got into the profession. This should be no different.
#39, Exactly.
I am reminded of Bryant Gumbel interviewing Anne Archer (yes, I’m showing my age). He asked her about some semi-nude scenes she did for a movie and asked how she got in shape. She smiled and giggled all the way through his compliments and talked about her diet and exercise. It was the last straw for her body double, who came out a short time later to say all those shots were actually of her. It became a huge story. I don’t know what happened to that woman, but Sarah might want to call her and find out. . .
Wow, Natalie took a break from banging her K-Fed, who had a live-in girlfriend at the time, long enough to learn to do 5% of the arm flailing in the movie. I’m impressed.
Here’s a comparison for you: three actors who were nominated/won Oscars for portraying musical prodigies. Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar in 1997 for “Shine” in which he played a brilliant pianist who had a mental breakdown. Adrien Brody in “The Pianist” for which he won the Oscar in 2003. Emily Watson was nominated for playing famous cello played Jacqueline Du Pre in “Hilary and Jackie.”
None of those three actors actually played the musical instruments in their films- they did the movement on the piano or the cello and the actual music was performed by a professional musician.
As far as I know, none of them gave a public thank you or acknowledgment for the actual musicians used in their films. All spoke in interviews about the music lessons they had before shooting and the work they did to look like real musicians.
So why is this different? Because Natalie Portman is insufferable? Because she’s a woman? Because her Ballet K-Fed gave that stupid interview and kicked up a shit storm (my personal belief- I think this is about an old grudge in the ballet world, since Sarah Lane is in the same company as the ballerina K-Fed left for Portman)?
Actors are asked to portray people with skills that they don’t actually possess, and they use stunt doubles/professional doubles all the time. Those people never get acknowledgment for their work- it sucks, but it’s all part of the illusion of the movies.
I know I’m in the minority but I have a hard time believing that Natalie did almost none of the dancing. Nowadays keeping something like this quiet would be almost impossible. Especially considering Sarah wasn’t even asked to sign a confidential agreement. If the studio and Natalie were going to lie, I would think that would be the first thing they would do. I haven’t seen the movie or know about stunt work but doesn’t the actor and double do the same moves than it’s sliced together? Maybe most of the dancing is Natalie but the double is just assuming it’s her. Basically if this was a coverup I would think they would have done a better job of it. Everybody has said Natalie had a double so I don’t get why this is a scandal.
it’s not about who did the dancing or about who got the credit and who didn’t. It comes down to who’s got professional *class*… and it ain’t the real ballerina. She signed on to be a body double dancer, and got paid to be a body double dancer. End of story. It’s not like she got duped into something she didn’t sign up for. But clearly in hindsight she wants more glory than that. If the film had been a flop.. would she still be stumping for all the credit? She is classless and unprofessional. Unlike Natalie, of whom I was never a fan before.
What none of us know is how much of the dancing ended up on the cutting room floor. Our ballet dancer, who, btw, didn’t come out complaining until after the movie won an Oscar, could have been in many more action/dance sequences which may have been chopped during the movie editing. So maybe she did do a lot more work – it just didn’t appear on screen.
She also admitted to not having an agent – who in the performing arts industry DOESN’T HAVE A FREAKIN agent – If she thinks she got screwed over then it’s her own fault!
I also agree with the fact that Natalie Portman won the BEST ACTRESS oscar, not the BEST DANCER oscar. Get over yourselves.
This girl is beyond deplorable and vile and should lose her Oscar. She’s like a reptile or thinks of herself entitled – which is pathetic.
I feel nothing for Portman and a world of sympathy for this girl – she worked just as hard and harder to get to where she is and she didn’t deserve that at all. Think of how you guys would feel if someone pulled that shit on you. You wouldn’t let them get away with it – and we should let Portman get away with it. She’ll just do this to someone else some where down the line. Nothing is beneath her.
I wasn’t impressed with the Black Swan, incest, masturbation, sex exploitation, drug usage, self harming, eating disorders, oh and there is dancing – what made is Oscar worthy? Beats me.
Then again seeing how all US awards are well known to be biased it doesn’t surprise me that Black Swan beat out The Kings Speech – but the Kings Speech was absolutely superior and will be a classic where as Black Swan will fall under soft porn.
I think it’s more about the ART. It’s kind of insulting to those that study ballet all their lives and work hard at it only to have this perception thrown out there that someone can train for a year and a half and manage to do 85% of the work.
It is Ben who said that though, which makes it even more annoying.
Natalie won because of the hype around her learning to “dance” and because she cried allot in the movie, really her one “skill” an actress (assuming its not spray-on). So yes, Portman, Ballet K-Fed and the studio all worked to create the impression that she was some sort of prodigy and got away with it. She got the Oscar by selling that gimmick and won over far more deserving actresses. Of course if you closely watch the upper body scenes with her stiffly waving her hands around like a duck rather than a swan (the movie should have been called the Black Duck), you know that she’s about as good a dancer as Elaine in Seinfeld. Quite frankly, Jim Carrie in the SNL parody was more impressive, both from an acting and a dancing standpoint.
It doesn’t matter. It was Natalie’s face on the screen. I didn’t care for the dancing much. It wasn’t so much about the dancing, but the psycho moments Natalie portrayed. Ballerina needs to shut up.
I danced for as many years as Portman did — until I was 13 — at an excellent school that followed Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) curriculum. I was evaluated every year after a certain age and always did very well on my RAD exams. I had no interest in or potential for becoming a professional dancer, but I do know that there is ZERO chance someone could stop dancing at 13, start up again 15 years later, despite training hard for a year, and be at a professional level. Ballet is just WAY too hard, and I agree with Lane that making it seem easy just demeans what the professionals do. If Lane did most of the dancing, she should get her due credit.
@viper: Actually, The King’s Speech did win- it won best director, best actor, and best picture. Black Swan only won Best Actress. The King’s Speech also won box office, earning more than Black Swan.
So…what exactly are you saying?
Does anyone know if stunt personnel and CGIers are acknowledged in the Technical Oscars? Maybe just CGIers… perhaps they should introduce “skill double” and “body double” categories. That would be amusing.
I agree with ctkat1 & others – no different than a stunt/skill double, and don’t know why this person should extra acknowledgment other than her film credit and paycheck. And that NP won for her acting, not dancing.
I took ballet as a kid and enjoy it, but I mainly went because I kept hearing how good the movie and acting were. I thought what NP and Mila managed to do was impressive as they are not professional dancers (or ever claimed to be), but was under no illusions, obviously they had dance doubles. And for all the articles and interviews I read, I was never led to believe they did it all. Most of the dancing in the final film seemed to be the more simple, close up stuff, so maybe both arguments are right – Lane danced a ton of complicated stuff, but of the final movie, BM’s estimate is correct?
A thank you would have been nice, but maybe they didn’t interact much, and NP thanked people who worked with her all day every day?
Demeaning to the profession? No more so than any other skilled profession being portrayed by a less skilled actor – it’s acting! It would only be demeaning if NP (or Mila) had said “I’m now on the same level as a true professional ballerina” – which no one has ever claimed.
BM doesn’t need to keep harping on how much of the film is really Natalie, but I also think Lane needs to quit whining about it too. Be grateful for the job and exposure.
I am trying figure out why this even matters. The Ballet in that movie was good but certainly not that impressive, Nat didn’t win an Oscar because of the ballet, it was for her performance. It was for Nat’s transformation into this powerful, dangerous woman. I believe the studio and Nat when they say that she did most of the dancing herself because Nat always prepares for roles and works hard, ever since she was little. Heck Nat shaved her head to a film. I believe she did alot of the dancing and the girl did the complicated stuff.
Then again seeing how all US awards are well known to be biased it doesn’t surprise me that Black Swan beat out The Kings Speech – but the Kings Speech was absolutely superior and will be a classic where as Black Swan will fall under soft porn.
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The Black Swan did not win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The King’s Speech did. You should probably do a little research before spewing forth.
@Praise St. Angie! It was KFed2’s interview that made her speak out.
No it wasn’t. She started whining back in December (as is mentioned in the post). It was discussed in ONTD and other gossip sites. It’s actually the other way around, HE is reacting to the negative buzz Lane created (and, again, this post quotes him saying as much).
@Praise St. Angie! And in a situation like this where (as so many have pointed out) the minimizing of the dancer’s contribution was used to campaign for an award, it makes it even worse, IMO.
Even in this very post there is a quote from Natalie where she says that she didn’t do all the difficult moves and woudn’t be able to because she’s not a real dancer. And it’s not an exception, she did make a point that she wasn’t a real ballerina inspite of 18 months training for the movie and years of ballet classes she took as a child. What else could she do? Why should she go out of her way to promote her dance doubles (there were more than one)?
I’m on Team Wronged Ballerina.
I have not see the movie, but I was definitely under the impression that Natalie did a crap load of the dancing. She made it sound like it almost killed her from the interviews I’ve read.
I’m not sure what Ms. Lane’s intentions are, but I agree that it is demeaning to any dancer that has trained her whole life, to make it seem that ballet can be picked up in a year and a half.
Why is this mediocre movie still talked about?
Is part of the problem that Lane didn’t get credited as Ballet stunt double? If so, then I can understand her speaking up. If she did get included in the credits as the stunt double then there shouldn’t be a problem. Her work was acknowledged.
Sorry meant to say Ballet stunt double twice.
@all who say Natalie should have publicly acknowledged Lane.
She did. Here are a just couple of quotes.
“I was en pointe for – I mean, there’s no way, obviously, I could have learned, you know, fouette turns en pointe for the film. That’s something that takes a lifetime to perfect.
So 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.” Source http://www.wbur.org/npr/131667596/to-become-a-black-swan-portman-had-to-go-dark
How much of the dancing in the film did Portman actually do? According to her — as she explained with a clear note of pride in her voice — nearly all of it. “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 on 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.” Source http://movies.msn.com/the-rundown/blackswan/story_5/
So basically most of the closeup dancing (which comprises the vast majority of the dancing in the film) is probably Natalie, whereas the wide shots and full-body shots are either Lane or Prosa (which comprise about a minute or two of the entire film).
And back in December Lane wasn’t actually expecting any thanks from Portman. “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.” Source: http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/December-2010/Quick-QA-Sarah-Lane
First of all, Mila Kunis didn’t claim to master ballet, and seemed cranky and hungry after starving herself to simulate a ballerina. Natalie perhaps took to the task of mastering ballet and winning an Oscar by impregnating herself with a choreographer’s sperm. If that’s not real commitment, I don’t know what is. The film is in large part about dance, and it was awful. Frankly, if I was Sarah Lane, I would deny having anything to do with this film.
Here is an interesting video that demonstrates Black Swan CGI magic including face replacement in dance scenes.
http://www.badassdigest.com/2011/01/27/black-swan-is-full-of-cgi
If the movie had been called the Flustered Duck (I know I said Black Duck before, the process is iterative) she would have deserved the Oscar.
@Bellatrix (#41): Let’s just start name calling! Natalie is a stiff, or in ballet terms a “corpse de ballet”. I would know! What? Someone called a principal?!? Ask s/he the name of the person who sang the role of Maria in the “West Side Story”. Hint: It wasn’t Natalie Wood, but Natalie didn’t know that until after the film was released.
Wanna bet Natalie is NOT snort-laughing right now? She (and her publicists) are probably pissed off at Benny for his comments.
This story also reveals a lot about the amount of power or prestige Benjamin Thousand Feet TRULY has in the ballet world.
If Benny 1000-Feet is as respected as he leads the general public to believe, then Sarah Lane probably wouldn’t risk crossing swords with him. That she has speaks volumes about his being a dilettante not a ballet innovator and powerhouse.
It’s not about Natalie not thanking Sarah at the Oscars, it’s about everyone saying Natalie is such a ballet prodigy. She isn’t, she’s indeed stiff and isn’t convincing as a prima ballerina.
It’s not important for the movie plot, but it’s annoying that someone will give Natalie credit for 85% of the dancing when it’s clearly not her doing.
I’ve often done 100% of the work and had my former boss accept 100% of the credit. As a matter of fact, people have approached my boss (in my presence) and complimented him on “his” work. He never once corrected them. It was frustrating, but I was getting paid so I sucked it up. Now I work with people that are more than happy giving me the credit and, while unnecessary, it feels good. I understand feeling unappreciated. However, had Portman’s body double sucked it up, she would have had more and better opportunities. You never badmouth a former boss, in any profession, it’s bad form and gets you black balled.
Why do people get angry at gay actors who employee beards? Because we don’t hate that they’re gay but we dislike the lie.
Why are people upset about Natalie? No one cares that she needed a professional dancer to “body double” for her but we hate the lie that claims that she did it all herself.
Natalie, come out of the closet.
Team Sarah.
Again the comments here are missing the point. Portman won an Oscar for HER performance, a big part which was the emotional expression of HER dancing but it wasn’t HER dancing, therefore whether the Oscar is deserved becomes a very real issue. This is not simply a case of whether stunt doubles deserve a share in award glory. This woman Sarah Lane actually gave the Oscar worthy performance to a significant degree.
Sorry guys I was misinformed who won – serves me right for looking through the newspaper instead of on here. But Still it is very biased. Thanks for the corrections.
There are videos on Youtube where you can see how they altered Natalie’s face on to Sarah’s body. Basically every scene where there is a body shot of dancing – Natalie’s face was digitally edited on. I mean… you can’t do pointe in a year so obviously it would have to be someone else. I’m just surprised this didn’t come out sooner. Natalie did mainly muscle training so she’d have the BODY of a dancer – not the skill.
i think someone want their 15 min. like it was stated above, we knew it was not all NP dancing, she never claimed it was, lane knew her position before taking the job, she got paid, it’s done all the time on many different levels on other movies, what’s and where’s the problem?
Oh come on, we all saw Flashdance and know that in a dance movie, there will be a dance double. I wouldn’t think Natalie did more than 50%, and those who believe she did are deluded. The dance double has some sort of ax to grind, probably money. She sounds like a whiney child.
Just like actors, dancers are also artists who deserve proper due credit and acknowledgement for thier work. Natalie Portman failed to give due credit for another artists work. Period. She basically wanted to mislead everyone into thinking it was ALL her talent alone.
If someone had been an ‘acting double’ and done 85% of all Natalies acting scenes, we’d all call Natalie Portman a big fake.
Well, since the dance was a significant part of the character role for the Swan and someone did 85% of it AND Natalie would NOT have won an award without the dance, a lot of credit-or perhaps another award-should go to the real ballerina.
Otherwise, Natalie Portman is a liar and a ‘dance plagerist’.
ITA with Praise St. Angie.
Sarah Lane said all this because of the b.s. balletKFed said about Natalie doing 85% of the dancing. Lane didn’t care before because it was the studio/Natalie/the PR machine going on & on about Natalie “transforming herself into a ballerina.” But for a fellow dancer to say Natalie did 85% of the dancing is insulting. That is the only “axe” she has to grind — that ballet KFed is going along with this b.s. to make those morons in Hollywood who believed that Natalie was so special & such a prodigy that she could become a prima ballerina in 1 1/2 years justified in giving her the Oscar.
I saw the movie — and anyone with any knowledge of ballet can see that Natalie’s actual dancing (head & arms shots) are pretty pathetic — very stiff & improper lines. Lane did the actual “real” dancing. And she’s right — the studio/Natalie did sell her as doing *most* of the dancing to get the Oscar — even her line about the “complicated turns” not being something she could “do in a year!” The implication is that she could have done those if she had more time! What utter cr@p! Dancers’ bodies are conditioned from puberty! It isn’t something you can pick up at 29 years-old! Yet, she sold her “sacrifice for her art” & that, not her acting, is the only reason she got the Oscar because she only had two expressions in that movie: scared & confused. It was a total fraud.
And for those saying this will hurt Lane in the ballet world, I disagree. The ballet world is not Hollywood & doesn’t really give a cr@p about Hollywood. They all know Natalie didn’t do the dancing in the movie. Lane is a soloist with the ABT — she won’t get any more work in Hollywood for all those ballet movies they make each year, but she will be just fine in the ballet world.
Sour grapes.
The dancer knew what she signed up for; she’s just annoyed that she did not get the appreciation Portman did.
Newsflash: a lot more people are interested in movies than ballet; take another profession if you don’t like it.
She won for being best actress, not best dancer. I specifically watched for full-body shots to see if it was Natalie, but there were not that many of those.
THe ballerina should not have been hired because she is too jealous of Natalie Portman. Nobody cares if Portman can really dance. The ballerina is just mad because Portman is getting all the attention.
Natalie Hershlag, the girl who used to cut in the lunch line every day at Harvard. Of course she didn’t thank Sarah Lane for dancing in Black Swan! Natalie is an arrogant b!tch. Always has been. And now she has her Oscar so don’t you forget it.
All this would be more moot if Natalie Portman hadn’t won that Oscar. Which begs the question, exactly WHY did she win that Academy Award? For her acting skills or her dancing skills? Oscar campaigns are run like political campaigns, except that the latter affects real life, which makes it less funny.
I’m always late on these threads. This bitchy dancer is BEYOND pathetic. She signed on as a double. She did the work and presumably, got paid for it. Uh…why do you suppose that there’s a gigantic list of credits at the end of a movie??? Not to sound sophomoric, but DUH. Actresses and Actors are a few people out of hundreds and sometimes thousands of workers and other artists. It takes many many people to make a film work well. And yes. The actors/actresses usually end up with most of the credit. Is that pretty messed up? Yeah. But it wouldn’t really work well if we as a public went out to the movies to be bombarded by hundreds of people getting in our faces about their own personal contribution. I don’t remember a ton of publicity being put on Portman as the “almighty dancer”. Most of the articles I read on her performance were about her determination to get into character. And she’s credited her body double! By name! What more do you people want? So she didn’t thank her in her oscar speech. How horrible. People forget to thank their own spouses when they’re onstage. Try not to read too much into it. Otherwise, people should take a list of the credits with them when they go onstage, and they should be allowed to speak for at least an hour by way of “thank-you-ing”. Gimme a break.
Bitcherina wants some fame. She’s narcissistic enough to believe she deserves a hell of a lot more than she does. And she’ll probably never work as a double again, now that she’s stirred up a lovely pot of steaming shit. IMO, if she can’t handle the idea that she’s not a freakin’ star, then she shouldn’t sign up as a double. She should train a little harder and get credit in her own right. It would NOT surprise me at all that this girl wasn’t paid further by a certain spurned “other” ballerina that was left by Millipied, which is a totally different topic.
Finally, I feel like this is garnering a lot more bile for Portman specifically than any other actor with a double (all of them, really) because, as a dramatic actress, she seems pretty talented and she’s replacing some older actresses in the business who are worshipped like deities. There’s really no other reason to hate her. I’ve never seen any evidence that she’s mean or bitchy or evil. She’s just got more than some others have got as far as talent, and it’s burning some people up. I’ve never been a huge fan of her or anything, but with the exception of Star Wars, she’s been pretty good in her roles, and she’s never been hated so much until now, when all eyes are on her and her career.
Liana That’s how films are done. Being a double is a thankless and shitty job, but it’s what you sign on for. Should she have gotten a “thank you” by name from Natalie? ABSOULTELY. should she have expected it? Nope. And NO ONE in Hollywood, certainly not the members of the Academy, really thought she did ANY of the full body shots, much less 85% of them.
Absolutely. It’s poor form for Natalie to dismiss her double’s contribution to the film, but it is equally poor form for Lane to gripe about not being recognized.
Those who are in the know will know, honey. And those who aren’t won’t care and aren’t worth your time. The need for validation after Portman’s Oscar win sort of diminishes Lane’s argument, no?
Zelda: Yes, but I did say “for the most part” and you are but one person. I think it would be great if everyone saw movies for their complexity or artistry. But do I think that this is how the majority of people think? Um, no.
All I know is that I can barely pay for college while Snooki and Kim Kardashian are making a ton of money.
Besides the lesbian scene was part of the marketing of the movie. You cannot deny that.
Millipied messed up, downgrading the expertise required of his own profession.
I took ballet 6 years. What he describes in the interview re what the double “just” did (the “fouettes/diagonal/footwork”) basically
sums up all the dancing in the movie. The only “dancing” left after what he describes is the stretching and arm flutters. Portman’s statement was a little iffy- “we all agreed it would be best if I did most of the dancing…” I think it would’ve been a nice gesture on Portman’s part to name a few of her stunt doubles by name. It would have also been a nice gesture just to the world of dance itself. But on the other hand, this girl did get credited as a double in the film credits.
I have no opinion on this… you see – why this dancer is even in press with her comments? okay, she hates Natalie and the fact her role is reduced – but why she’s going to press? not her friends and close people but press? I usually bitch to my buds. what is she trying to achieve by this?
as for Natalie – as an actress she didn’t HAVE to actually learn to ballet dance. if she did talk (I just don’t know, I didn’t read or watch any of her interviews) like she learned to ballet dance – she’s the bitch. actually, I think as an actress she could’ve mentioned if her interviews that she’s thankful for her body double amazing work (if it was amazing – haven’t seen the movie so I don’t know or care).
Kaiser, i agree with your comment: the OSca campaign was based on NAtalie POrtman bcoming ballerina;the talk was about unbelievable transformation and hard work yada yada…
Fact is, when it’s THeron in the “monster”, it’s a different story, bc she had to make herself ugly and fat; Natalie could not get herself to dance Like a ballet dancer. I was going to ballet shows since i was 4, and there is no way an actress could EVER dance Like that. It’s a wa of life, and i remember that our primaballerina said, when the movie came out, that it is unrealistic.
The thing is, hiw much attention would this movie get if there wasn’t ballet in it? If media around the world weren’t all about the amazin transformation of Nat??!!
So yeah, i agree. Oscar campaign on false pretenses: that is nothing new. Portman being ambigious and not so nice and cute and saintly; that is also old news, but can we please just acknowledge that???!!!
Body doubles and stuntmen never sell a movie:It’s sold by the actors, period. Don’t the doubles know their names appear only after?Are they ever thanked in public and by name? And why whould anyone go to see a film if there is a buckét full of insider kitchen’s tit bits? (she did this but not that and the other part only half…)I for one don’t want to disect my movies.They either convince me as a whole or not.
@ Jane:
It doesn’t matter. It was Natalie’s face on the screen. I didn’t care for the dancing much. It wasn’t so much about the dancing, but the psycho moments Natalie portrayed. Ballerina needs to shut up.
Placed on at least one of the double dancers via good old CGI. And for those saying there were shots that showed “her” entire body, you may have that impression…but that was CGI experts doing an exceptional job of placing Portman’s face on that body.
Here’s the link (you see the black squares on her face? That’s for placing Portman’s later on):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-levine/natalie-portmans-evil-twi_b_789564.html
@ Jenn:
But on the other hand, this girl did get credited as a double in the film credits.
People don’t usually stay in the theater to read the ending credits. I’m must be one of the few who do that (also, I check IMDb later for more specific information). So it would have been nice if Portman gave her body doubles some credit, instead of downplaying their contribution.
BTW for those that say that nobody thought that all or most of the dancing was NP. Remember Emily Blunt praising her for learning ballet?
Look, they pasted Portman’s head onto Lane’s dancing and then trumpeted Portman’s dance training and conditioning for months. For the studio to come out and say that “Natalie herself did most of the dancing” is BS and insulting to Lane and other professional dancers.
Full disclosure– I despise Natalie Portman.
@ Newbie:
because, as a dramatic actress, she seems pretty talented and she’s replacing some older actresses in the business who are worshipped like deities.
If Portman is our only hope to replace the great actresses of today, then we’re all doomed. Imagine having Meryl Streep’s amazing range of expressions replaced by an unstoppable crying? Spine chilling thought, I tell you.
@Eve and others
Portman DID gave her credit. She’s mentioned her by name and said that it was Lane who’s doing the difficult stuff not her. In several interviews. How come that’s not enough?
I think it’s really about how we all hate Portman (I’m no fan of hers either) and are happy for any excuse to bash her. Even when she’s really not at fault at all.
Lane’s really shooting herself in the foot – she’s not earning herself anything but 15 minutes of very minor attention for this, and almost certainly guaranteeing she’ll never be hired for movie work, at the least, again. I guess she figures she can’t get paid /less/ for the work she did in Black Swan, but she’s not really thinking about how this is affecting her reputation. She’s not coming off as a team player, and that’s going to hurt her.
and if she’s complaining about how she was billed, she should have made it part of her contract.
Dunno, I don’t have a lot of sympathy. Stunt/body doubles are an institution in the movies. And after all, Portman won her oscar for acting, not dancing.
@ N.D.:
@Eve and others
Portman DID gave her credit. She’s mentioned her by name and said that it was Lane who’s doing the difficult stuff not her. In several interviews. How come that’s not enough?
And I did mention that on my second post (# 30). But I insist with this: the closer the race for the Oscars was, the more people talked about Portman mastering ballet movements after only one and a half years of training. If *I* — who have never intended to be a ballerina in the first place — think it’s annoying, let alone someone who’s trained her whole life and did most of the job for her.
No, it’s not about thanking them or giving them credit all the time — and I understand what’s being said about why she won the award: her acting. However, it wasn’t only for that she won (not deservingly, in my opinion), many praised her commitment (which is fair, she’d lost a lot of weight and rehearsed endless hours) and the fact she “convinced as a ballerina”. She was convincing because there was somebody else doing it for her. In fact, if you think about it, the dancing (regardless of the fact it was a mix of Portman/doubles/CGI) was indeed part of what people thought was so great about her acting.
P.S.: anyway, as someone above said, the movie is mediocre and shouldn’t be talked about that much.
After reading all the comments, the problem is not with Natalie Portment or Ms Lane. Natalie has taken up with a man she didn’t know long enough, she is going to regret it in the long run. This discussion would never come about if it wasn’t for her new husband blabbing about Natalie’s 85% contribution to the dance routines in Black Swan. Someone mentioned that people are jealous because she is taking over in Hollywood, I saw the movie because of all the hype of Portman’s dancing and acting ability, afterwards I thought the movie was silly, and her acting was poor how she won that oscar I don’t know.
The Natalie “I trained for a year” and “suffering for her art” hype was a big ‘reason’ to watch. To see her ‘natural dance prodigy’. That is how Swan was marketed to the public.
Given that, a fraud was perpetrated about Portmans’ real skills in her role. She isnt the ‘dance prodigy’ she was advertised to be. It was someone else’s talent she took credit for.
Would Millepied like to be credited as the Quick Jump Off or the father? Would Natatlie P want to be credited as the muther or the Incubator?
PORTMAN IS JUST A FRAUD BITCH; PEDOPHILE DEFENSOR; may she rot in hell!
The outing couldn’t have happened to a more deserving uppity Natalie Portman. Stayed away from the movie b/c of her.
Sweet justice!!!
Did the dancer even get credited as a body double? I re-watched the movie this weekend, and I only saw her credited as a hand model. Which would seriously piss me off as well.
I agree with others, this whole thing is Ballet k-fed’s fault.
@ L (# 151):
Just to answer your question, at least on IMDb she’s credited as “Lady in the Lane”. Some people said she was credited only as an “extra” — though I’m not sure about that.
And IrenaNL (# 150), you didn’t miss much — I usually love Aronofsky’s work but wish I hadn’t wasted my time with this movie (taking the bus, spending my money to go to the theater, I mean). People kept talking about how deep it was (as a psychological thriller) and while I was watching it I kept thinking “really?”, because all I could see was some of the most stereotypical characters ever (played accordingly, by the way) with nice special effects and great editing (the latter being one of Aronofsky films’s trademark).
If the script didn’t have at least some merit and the acting wasn’t solid, it wouldn’t matter how many dancing doubles they had in the movie. The movie would not be considered oscar material. They found someone who was at the top of their game in dancing and the top of their game in acting and they made the best movie they could. The oscar nomination is probably a nod to the director as anyone else. His movies are weird but he does have talent. I think the moral of this story is don’t take a double job if you can’t take how much attention the star is going to get. No one cares about ballet – that’s why the ballerina isn’t famous.
The quote from this very post”
“she is credited only as “Hand Model,” “Stunt Double,” and “Lady in the Lane” (a brief walk-on role)”
Quick one: a friend of mine called her “Milli Vanilli Portman”. LOL!
@ N.D.:
Forgot to thank you for the link (to that video).
I know I’m going to get ragged on about bringing up the wrong example, but it’s the best one that comes to mind at the moment… Benjamin Button. How much of that Oscar nominated performance was putting Pitt’s face into place over that of the “body actor”? Apparently the first three reels were nothing but that, according to one interview here:
http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button/
I for one, don’t recall having ever heard the names of the people who were the “body actors” in this film in any of the press or any of the Oscar campaign hoopla, although given the nature of the film, much of it was “acted” by someone other than Pitt. I’m sure this is not the only example, it’s just a recent and obvious one. I think it goes on all the time in HW, only most of the time the anonymous body double doesn’t speak up.
I am no Portman stan. Not even a fan Have remained mum on the topic, but I like to use reason. Guys, let the evidence be our guide and let the facts speak for themselves. See# 110. Thanks for the links to the articles!
Let us accept that we were all erroneous in our belief that Sarah Lane was not thanked. She was and she herself admitted in the dance magazine that just being part of the process was thanks enough. Even when Natalie’s baby daddy made that statement, there was no need for a rebuttal, because there are many articles out there that prove his statement false.
Even if Lane felt it necessary to to respond to the guy, why is she maligning Portman? What did Portman do to her? Shouldn’t she be mad at the guy for trivializing her work. Hmmmm?
I like ballet, but didn’t like this movie. It was tedious, and I thought NP overacted, usually, I think she’s as wooden as a cigar store Indian. I have no idea why she won the oscar, but the oscars are usually revolve on H’wood politics, so I don’t care about them anyway. I have to agree, that NP’s oscar campaign def seemed like she had mastered ballet, the campaign was way over the top, but hey, it worked. I think NP is very pretty, but not a good actress.
This ballet gate is pretty funny. The boyfriend shoulda kept his trap shut, that 85 percent thing does make them all look ridiculous.
Anyone have a link to the youtube clip that shows how the digital face manipulation is done?
@ Canuck:
I didn’t think Pitt’s acting in Benjamin Button was that great either. And, as you say, it had the help of great CGI work.
@ GoodnessGracious:
I aknowledged that she was thanked (on my post # 30) and even later on I said it wasn’t a matter of thanking her all the time. My point was, and still is, that Portman was advertised as some sort of prodigy that learned how to do the “most part of the dancing” herself. Given the fact The Academy LOVES giving awards to actresses who “go ugly” or who put on/lose a massive amount of weight for a role — meaning, that they make “sacrifices” for it — a lot of her campaign emphasized the fact she trained so hard (which she did, I’m not denying this) that she actually did almost everything. Say whatever you want about her acting and dancing (if it’s good or not), but her Oscar campaign suggested/implied she did the dancing herself most of the time — that wasn’t a coincidence, really. They (producers, director, coreographer) knew that would help her chances.
@ Amanda # (160):
N.D. posted a link to it on her comment # 113. I’ll repost it here anyway.
http://www.badassdigest.com/2011/01/27/black-swan-is-full-of-cgi
EDIT (adding the Youtube link as well):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n71sjmd-bM
I loathe Natalie Portman! She is an egomaniac and should be called out for winning an Oscar based on her lying that she did majority of her own dancing-she didnt! She could have been grascious and said yes i put in alot of hard work but i have to thank the dance double. She won her Oscar under false pretenses but she will never admit that – her ego wont let her.
Portman is a girl so stupid she actually denounced John Galliano saying she is Jewish and proud and everyone should ban him (yes his comments were hideous) BUT SHE IS SO PROUD OF HER JEWISH HERITAGE – SHE DOESNT USE HER JEWISH LAST NAME!!!!! Her real last name is not Portman its Hershlag but i guess she is embarrassed of her Hebrew name??!! But she’ll cry some b.s. and say i thought it was to hard to pronounce or some other lame excuse.
To Boot she openly supports a known rapist(Polanski)!
She is unintelligent & a total hypocrite.
@ Kim:
In all fairness, the fact she chose the artistic name “Portman” doesn’t mean in any way she isn’t proud of her heritage. It’s just a more commercial name, I’m not reading too much into it. Also, I think I read somewhere that’s her grandmother’s maiden name, so that makes her related to it anyway.
SARA IS JUST PISSED TO REALIZE NO ONE CARES ABOUT HER DOUBLES DONT MATTER THATS WHY WE DONT SEE TOM CRUISES DOUBLE DOING OPRAH
DIDNT SHE WIN BEST ACTRESS NOT BEST BALLERINA
Flashdance anyone?
Beales/Jahan
or
Milli Vanilli:
Their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that the lead vocals on the record were not the actual voices of Morvan and Pilatus.
it’s old news now, whatshername rendered a service and got paid for that service, end of story, move it along, Natalie, rightfully so,won n Oscar for her acting, not just dancing, lane, needs to go ride someone else’s coat tail for fame, or take up acting, since she wants the spot light so badly nobody cares about her, as stated above, jealousy is not pretty.
@Kim
I don’t think Natalie’s ashamed of her jew name. When you’re an artist you have to get your own brand artistic name and “portman” is easier for people to remember.
@Eve:
Dude, I’m sooo sorry. A penitence is in order, I think. I was most definitely NOT talking about the talent/s of Streep, Blanchett, etc. I was talking about…erm…other “dramatic” actresses who are worshipped on this site. My apologies, and yes, that would be a very desolate future in film indeed.
@ Newbie:
I was most definitely NOT talking about the talent/s of Streep, Blanchett, etc. I was talking about…erm…other “dramatic” actresses who are worshipped on this site.
*WHEW*
I’m really glad you clarified this. You see…I couldn’t sleep at night thinking about it. My last will and testament remains unchanged then.
Jennifer Beals was much more gracious about the work of the dancing doubles in Flash Dance. There’s a video on youtube where she says there were actually 4 doubles – 3 women and one boy who did the acrobatics.
@Kim – Many H’wood actors/actresses change their name. Grow up.
Sarah Lane is a whiner extraordinaire. Portman has stated on numerous occasions she had a body double for the complicated dance scenes. Lane got paid she needs to sit down and shut up.
Addendum:
I can’t think of a single Oscar winner that thanked their body or stunt double during their acceptance speech. What a shocker. Portman thanked the cast and crew during her acceptance speech ie Lane was part of the crew she was thanked.
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