Black Swan Ballerina Says Natalie Portman Basically Didn't Dance
I was almost positive we'd never have to talk about awful-ass Black Swan again, but here comes a kick-ass, scorned ballerina with a tale to tell: Sarah Lane, a 27-year-old American Ballet Theater soloist who worked as a body double on Black Swan, tells EW that there's a "cover-up" to prevent people from knowing she performed 95% of the cygnet moves in the movie. Now, I can't guarantee that Sarah isn't wearing black wings and circling her house right now like a crazed Sean Young type, but her quotes sound legitimate.
You can see why Lane would dislike being reduced to the title of "hand model" if she performed as much of the on-screen choreography as she claims.
"Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie," says Sarah Lane, 27, an American Ballet Theater 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 as "Hand Model," "Stunt Double," and "Lady in the Lane" (a brief walk-on role). [...]
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."
Nothing is better than a jilted dancer. Those girls always have so many opinions, and they know when a prima ballerina is just a flab-faced tippler lost in a tulle husk. They'll just tell you. They'll write it in your program. I also like to picture Lane stalking the corridors of her house and mumbling that she's not sure Natalie could ever play the white swan, like Vincent Cassel, but while wearing a Sean Young-sewn swan outfit, see.
Not that Natalie's moves really affected her performance, but Lane's stroke of revolt is necessary if it's true. Don't go making claims about people's ballet abilities, Benjamin Millepied, if the real artiste is a barely credited extra who doesn't have the media in her backyard. But who knows. Maybe this is all a crock -- like Black Swan! Remember: It was terrible.
What do you think? Is Lane exposing a great sham? Besides Black Swan, which was a great sham?
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Comments
Who didn't expect something like this? I mean it was pretty obvious from minute 1 of the marketing campaign that it was all set around "Natalie's amazing ability to dance like a professional dancer", and that vfx video with the head replacing was very suspecting.
It's pretty clear that this article is a "sham." I mean talk about unprofessionalism! I'm fairly sure this was not supposed to be an opinion piece. No one cares that you didn't like the movie, that's not relevant to the article your writing. "Her quotes sound legitimate"? Based on what? "Remember: It was terrible." Ok, that's an opinion, not a fact, so don't present it as one! And, for that matter, it's an opinion that's not even representative of most movie goers. The film received rave reviews from critics, won an Oscar as well as being nominated for an additional 4 including best picture and best director. It currently holds an average user rating of 8.5/10 on IMDB and has made over $281 million worldwide on a $13 million budget. Clearly, Mr. Virtel, you are in the minority!
I can certainly understand the dancer's issues, especially if Portman and company are claiming otherwise. But as an audience member: who cares? Portman turned in a terrific performance that also included her LITERALLY TURNING INTO A SWAN. Maybe the VFX artists who animated the feathers whilst Portman/Lane was twhirling (a few seconds of screentime that probably required months of work) have a bone to pick for not being thanked during Portman's Oscar acceptance, too?
Know what else? The dude in that movie where he's trapped under the rock didn't even cut his arm off for his movie! WTF?!?
There are a lot of lousy... no make that crappy, movies that make money (think Showgirls), making money doesn't make a movie good.
More importantly though, I'm guessing the feet model (unless she danced with her hands that is), can't grasp the concept of body double. Big deal, babe, you didn't get the credit you think you deserve. Deal with it. You WERE NOT the star of the movie.
I can see it. You work your ass off day after day making a star look good, then said star wins an Oscar and has everybody gushing about how miraculously she rose to the physical challenge while you, aching and covered in sweat, are never mentioned. I don't think she wants star billing, I just think she's justifiably fed up with the fawning bullshit.
Haven't I heard this story before? Ah yes, in the '80's. But then it was Flashdance, and it was Jennifer Beale who didn't actually do the dancing.
Of course, she didn't win an oscar for the role...
I agree. Quite frankly, as an ex-dancer, I would think that anyone with a solid ballet background could tell when NP was and wasn't dancing. She *was* stiff. I wonder which of them was responsible for the hands. I kept cringing at how whoever it was, was holding her hands out.
I guess I was the only one having Anne Bancroft in Turning Point flashbacks.
As far as dancing goes, I think Neve Campbell did a more convincing job in Altman's The Company.
"Now, I can’t guarantee that Sarah isn’t wearing black wings and circling her house right now like a crazed Sean Young type"
PRICELESS!
Fun fact: Lane and Portman wear different brands of points shoes,so if you can tell the difference, you know who's doing the dancing (hint: it's not the one with the little gold man on her mantle).
As for why Lane's coming forward, it sounds like she's fed up with fellow dancer Millepied. Let's not forget that he ditched his long term girlfriend (also a soloist with ABT like Lane) for Portman, and now he's dismissing all her hard work for the movie? I can't imagine Mr. Portman's too popular at ABT right now...
Yes on the shoes. Exactly what I was talkin about above.
This is shockingly bad journalism. Even for an industry site like MOVIELINE. Not only is it chock full of junior high quality bitchiness, but its writer doesn't even know how to watch a movie and find the proof in the pudding. Here's a thought, Mr. Virtel, watch the movie again and perhaps you might notice that the camera almost never shows Natalie's feet. Why? Because she's not really a ballerina. She studied and worked out for a year, yes, but in no way does she have the the prowess of a veteran ballerina and that is why you seldom see her entire body doing any routine or performance. Instead they photograph her almost entirely in close-up or mid-shot. The filmmakers are not hiding that fact either in the way they shot the film or by the DVD extras showing the visual effects they used when making the movie. Did Portman study to make the illusion more convincing? Of course. She could not go out there and not have some sense of movement and the steps. But to suggest her Oscar is not deserved because a body double was involved shows me that Virtel doesn't understand filmmaking.
This whole brouhaha is akin to suddenly not being able to appreciate Demi Moore in Striptease because we find out she had a double. C'mon.
Honestly, I'd have liked the film a helluva lot more without all that boring ballet, so this famewhore ballerina can take the credit for that stretch of film, as far as I'm concerned.
Makes me think of Marni Nixon. I remember meeting her back in the 80s and finding out who she was.
Natalie Portman did not win the Oscar because of her dancing ability. I doubt whether anyone who saw the movie particularly cares whether she did 90% or 10% of the actual dancing just as anyone who saw Raging Bull is aware that Robert De Niro did not deliver or absorb crushing blows in the boxing ring. But the Lane rant does reveal how bitchy the dance world can be.
The precedent here is Linda Blair for The Exorcist. Everyone thought she was a guaranteed win until Mercedes McBride revealed that she was the voice of the demon and demanded credit.
I think it's legitimate to question of Portman would have won if this dancer had brought her complaints prior to voting but I guess we shall never know. And big FAIL on her part for waiting till after the run of the film. It's a lost cause now.
I was thinking of Singin' in the Rain, but that's a much better example!
Amen. Why is it that because this chick won an Oscar, she's allowed to get away with stepping on someone's face? Isn't North American philosophy all about crediting the working man? I don't think the ballerina wanted to be a star, but was tired of Portman insinuating that she had become a master within a few months, thus trivializing Lane's lifetime of hard work.
Bigyalie is right. Portman won for her performance of a fragile artist unraveling before our eyes, not for all this hogwash about being a real ballerina. For all these idealists who are complaining about how much was her and what-not is just a waste of time and silly. The film and filmmakers did not attempt to cover the fact that she's not a pro. (I've covered that in an earlier post.) And surprise, surprise, the studio asked Miss Lane to not brag about what she did like she's doing now. Any wonder? It is sour grapes and Lane is grossly over-estimating what she did in the movie. Most of Portman's dancing is her in close-up. Clearly she did not have the supreme foot work, otherwise they would have shown more of her full body and connected her to the feet close-ups. Miss Lane's sour grapes may have more to do extending her 15 minutes. The bottom line is Natalie Portman did not win her Oscar for expert ballet dancing. She won her Oscar because the majority of the performance was in her face, a face that showed all the torment of what her character Nina Sayers was going through. It's a brilliant accomplishment. And the movie's success and her Oscar are a tribute to it. Case closed.
Mercedes McCambridge. But, yeah, point taken.
It would make sense Neve Campbell was more convincing in that movie because she had been an actual dancer, unlike Portman.
Something comparable to me would be Christian Bale’s role in “The Machinist” which is oddly similar to Portman’s doppelganger role in “Black Swan”. If Bale’s weight-loss had been done by a double or CGI-enhanced it would no longer appeal to me the same way as it does now. To those arguing that Portman’s role is more of a emotional struggle, ballet IS emotionally-charged physical movements so it will be unfounded to separate the two. Similarly, Lane admits that she cannot act as well as Portman so that’s acknowledgment on her end that it’s a TEAM effort, whereas the Portman-Millepied-Afronosky alliance has been promoting it as a Portman-only feat. If I was Ms. Lane, I too would feel slighted that not even a LITTLE pat on the back has come my way, especially since the movie garnered so much raves and accolades.
Sarah Lane is a professional performer whose expertise is dance, specifically ballet. Why shouldn't she want credit for what she contributed to Black Swan? It's a film based a ballerina trying to fulfill a role, and the filmmakers had to show authentic ballet dancing. I would expect Lane to feel bitterness when she hears a nondancer getting almost total credit for what she, the real artist, did.
It was clear to me (and I am a ballet fan, not a dancer) from the outset that Natalie Portman is not a dancer and that the main objective was for her to look like one, which she did. It was also painfully obvious that the camera had to focus on Portman's upper body because she wasn't executing the leg and foot work as a true dancer would. In the long shots and some medium shots, the real dancers took over; that rescued the believability of the dancing in the film. I certainly agree that Portman's body was stiff, and even her arms didn't have the flexibility characteristic of a dancer who has trained for practically her whole life.
That said, the filmmakers had to have an actress, not a dancer, to interpret the lead role of the film. Portman did a credible job, though I really disliked the movie, and my money was on Annette Bening for the Oscar. Nevertheless, the Hollywood juggernaut was in place: a beautiful young actor's turn had come, and the hype was nonstop. Same thing with Halle Berry and Charlize Theron (and years before, Jessica Lange), except that the films they won Oscars for weren't even in general release when the prize was awarded. At least Black Swan was out there for all to see.
(Berry, Theron, and Lange did excellent work, certainly. It's just that Hollywood adores beautiful young women, and when it turns out they actually can act, the industry goes crazy with adulation.)
I agree that Neve Cambell would have been a better choice for the Black Swan. The shots where Natalie was "dancing" were obvious and cringe worthy. There is more to the dancer look than being thin. Natalie does not fit that mold. They also tried to hide her lack of dancing skill by using that shaky cam thing and just showing her upper body.
I was not a major Natalie Portman fan, but she certainly gave an amazing acting performance in Black Swan. If her fiance's quote is correct above: “Honestly, 85 percent of that movie is Natalie" he is saying that most of the MOVIE is her, not the dancing. She admitted that she had help, and it's clear to anyone with a basic comprehension of movie editing and CGI that there are dancing enhancements and so forth at hand. But what makes the movie is the emotional journey, not the dancing; it's about a psychological breakdown, and Portman is certainly less "stiff" than ever in delivering that to the audience. I think that previous commenter makers are correct in stating that the real problem is Portman's fame-hungry fiance, who did leave his live-in girlfriend for Portman, and his strained relationship with Lane and the rest of ABT...
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