Nina's mother Erica is also a hallucination in the film. (Or mostly a hallucination) Nina lives by herself. I just saw the movie once, so I'm not sure if there's much evidence for this. Erica doesn't interact with anybody but Nina and doesn't ever leave her apartment except for a short shot of her in the audience.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a New York City ballerina living with her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey). The prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) is being replaced for the opening production of Swan Lake.
Because the mother is a failed dancer, she lives vicariously through Nina while simultaneously harboring some resentment of Nina's success. It's the career she never had. She also is over-protective and treats her daughter like a helpless child.
Maybe she had the first one at the bar with Lilly and the two guys, because Lilly confirmed they existed the next day. NOT REAL: Therefore, Lilly and Nina did not have actual sex (we know this because after sex, Lilly said something to Nina about being a ‘Good girl’ and then tried to smother her. Not real!)
Nina's disordered relationship with her roommate mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina's psychological breakdown. Erica is narcissistic, spending all of her time painting pictures of herself and completely infringing on Nina's space and well-being.
It turns out that Nina hallucinated the fight with (and subsequent murder of) Lily, and actually stabbed herself while in the throes of a psychotic episode. But this doesn't stop Nina from performing the role she's worked so hard to attain. Bleeding, she returns to the stage to perform the last act of the show.
The two fight, breaking a mirror. Nina stabs her doppelgänger with a large shard of glass from the mirror, killing her. The body reverts to Lily. Nina hides the corpse in the bathroom and takes the stage, dancing flawlessly as Odile and seemingly turns into a black swan, her arms covered in feathers.
Natalie Portman has transformed herself for many film roles, but nothing was as grueling as her Black Swan makeover. The actress shed an astonishing 20lbs from her already slight frame to play a ballerina in the 2011 film and admitted it put such a toll on her body that she thought she was going to die.
Even with Thomas Leroy's (Vincent Cassell) twisted take on "Swan Lake" in Black Swan, the same basic story is told, with Nina tasked to play the white swan and the seductive black swan. As a result, Nina performs the closing number with a stab wound in her chest, which results in her actually dying at the end.
Hi. Her character did, but she didn't. That said, it was still extremely awkward for both of them, and they have spoken about their discomfort while shooting the scene quite a few times.
It is, though, far from being the whole truth. The “Black Swan” screenplay has surely been prompted by a number of dancers' memoirs — Gelsey Kirkland's 1986 best seller, “Dancing on My Grave,” is just the most famous — to convey its neurotic version of the internal life of ballet.
She is shown engaging in a co-dependent relationship with her smothering mother, who still treats Nina like a young girl. Nina's mother appears to be living vicariously through her daughter's accomplishments, reminding Nina that if it were not for her, she would not be successful.
Nina's mother, Erica, is a former dancer living vicariously through her daughter. Even though Erica tends to Nina's every need, it's clear their relationship has crossed from affection to cloying codependency. Erica can no more let Nina grow up than Nina can live without her.
Anxiety disorder becomes one of the causes of Nina's schizophrenia. It happens when Nina always feels anxious because of her ambitions to become a Swan Queen. Her anxiety appears because she is very worried if Lily will replace her role as Swan Queen.
She still made it to America, and eventually had a small pandemic wedding with Mike. However, her married life made Natalie unhappy, which led to "stress eating." Natalie says she is on antidepressants, and gained 30 pounds following her arrival in the U.S.
How many calories did Mila Kunis eat for Black Swan?
Mila Kunis has confessed that her diet was restricted to 1,200 calories per day while filming Black Swan. The actress - who shrunk down to 95lbs for her role as a ballet dancer in the film - revealed that she was in "hell" during filming and only ate foods that fit in her hand, reports the Daily Star.
How much dancing did Natalie Portman really do in Black Swan?
In a written statement, "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky said, "Here is the reality. I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film -- 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. Twenty-eight are her dance double Sarah Lane.
Thomas notes that Nina clearly came with the intention to change his mind, to try and seduce him, in the mildest sense of the word. Thomas wants Nina to lose herself, that is how she can become the Black Swan. Thomas forcefully kisses Nina and she bits him.
Can child stars go on to credible careers? With her Ivy League credentials and a performance in Black Swan that's put her in line for an Oscar, Natalie Portman proves it can be done... At 29, Natalie Portman has already been in the business a long time.
Nina Sayers is a Caucasian female who is presumed to be in her early to middle twenties, although her actual age is unknown. She currently works as a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose name is undisclosed.
Nina is a teenaged girl, and she is being sexually abused by Thomas and her mother. The world of professional ballet looks nothing like what we see in the movie because it isn't one: it's a ballet school, Thomas is an instructor, and the Swan Queen production is a one-night performance by students.
Destruction of the body is the basis of all horror, but Black Swan's body horror serves a dual purpose by not only freaking out the viewer but also using symbolism to represent the decline of Nina's mental state. Though it isn't as overt as most other horror films, Black Swan is no less terrifying.
Her final line and the look of satisfaction on her face possibly imply that Nina is finally content with her artistic capabilities, and it no longer matters to her whether she survives or not. The purpose of her life has now been attained. The Black Swan explained that maybe, Nina does die after all.
