"Black Swan" is about a ballerina, played by Portman, who is cast as the lead in "Swan Lake" and gradually succumbs to madness even as she realizes her artistic potential.
After the 83rd Academy Awards, where Portman won Best Actress for her performance in the film as a ballerina, controversy arose over how much credit for the dancing in the film was being given to her and how much to her "dance double", American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane.
Soon after the L.A.-based Kunis was cast in "Black Swan," the film's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied, contacted the Los Angeles Ballet's artistic directors and asked if they could provide Kunis with ballet training. Instead of taking on the task themselves, they recommended Blacker for the assignment.
There are simply too many psychological issues going on with Nina. She shows elements of an anxiety disorder with obsessive compulsive behaviors. She also manifests self-injurious behavior and some signs of an eating disorder.
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.
Swan Lake – Entrée and Adage from the Black Swan pas de deux (The Royal Ballet)
How much weight did Natalie lose for Black Swan?
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.
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.
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.
Like other endings of Aronofsky movies, this incorporates surrealist elements as Lily's death was a hallucination. This wouldn't come as a surprise to viewers as the story had already dabbled in the protagonist showing similar behavior in the past.
Kunis had never had any previous experience in ballet, but trained for three months in order to "fake it." Kunis acknowledges that she got "crazy thin," as Stern puts it, weighing about 95 pounds. "I didn't starve myself," Kunis, who's 5' 4," stresses. "I did do it in the healthiest way possible.
Did Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis lose weight for Black Swan?
Already lean, Kunis dropped 20 pounds in order to play Natalie Portman's ballerina frenemy in "Black Swan." At 95 pounds, Kunis says "I was muscles, like a little brick house, but skin and bones." Unfortunately, when she gained the weight back, Kunis says it ended up in completely different places.
Kunis engaged in cardio and Pilates, "train[ing] seven days a week, five hours, for five, six months total, and ... was put on a very strict diet of 1,200 calories a day."
Did Natalie Portman learn how do you do ballet for Black Swan?
It's no secret that Natalie Portman had a dancing double for her Oscar-winning performance in 'Black Swan. ' It clearly would have been impossible for a ballet neophyte such as herself to learn some of the advanced techniques in less than a year.
The parts of Odile and Odette were originally danced by two separate dancers, but it has become customary for one ballerina to dance both parts to emphasise their similarities - and to highlight their differences.
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 speaking as a psychiatrist, Lamberti said the film did not accurately depict schizophrenia, as has been widely speculated, but "does present a reasonable portrait of psychosis." "People tend to be scared of things they don't understand," he said.
An example of a lateral sprain appears to occur in “Black Swan” when Nina is practicing her choreography on the tips of her toes, rolls her ankle out and hears a “pop” noise. Pain and swelling in the ankle also occur at this point.
Synopsis. The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young ballerina in her mid twenties, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a princess is turned into the White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her.
Sometimes in these situations, where a mother is caring for a mentally ill child the child's life needs to be strictly regimented and controlled in order to maintain stability. This could be the reason why Erica feels the need to restrict Nina's movements and social interactions.
Portman took ballet classes in preparation for the role, but Sarah Lane of American Ballet Theatre has claimed that she did the actual classical dancing, which includes pointe work. Her face was then, it seems, digitally replaced by Portman's.
The “en Pointe” technique in classical ballet is one of the most challenging to execute. In this move, a dancer has to support their entire bodyweight on their feet, which are fully extended.
