It's hard to believe the world is still talking about how much ballet dancing Oscar winner Natalie Portman performed while shooting Black Swan, but here you go: In an exclusive interview with 20/20 -- that was tweeted out by @BreakingNews of all places! -- Portman's dance double Sarah Lane goes on the record, again, to discuss what might be the myth of Natalie Portman: Ballet Queen.
"I'm not speaking because I feel I should be heralded," Lane said in the interview scheduled to air on Friday night. "I'm just speaking because they're completely lying about the amount of dancing that Natalie did in the movie."
Lane alleges that producers even went so far as to ask her to back away from the spotlight, following an interview the American Ballet Theatre soloist did with Glamour before the Academy Awards.
"[One of the producers] asked if I would please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie's image," Lane said. "They were trying to create this image, this facade, really, that Natalie had done something extraordinary. Something that is pretty much impossible ... to become a professional ballerina in a year and half. Even with as hard as she worked, it takes so much more. It takes twenty-two years, it takes thirty years to become a ballerina."
Not that Lane holds any grudges -- she still feels Portman deserved her Best Actress trophy, despite the so-called "facade."
"I think she is a really beautiful actress," she said. "I loved working with her. And she was really focused on her character every day. I definitely think she deserves, all the credit that she got with the Oscar."
Sorry, Annette Bening; looks like even Sarah Lane is on Team Portman. Can this case finally (finally) (finally!) be closed?
ยท Natalie Portman's 'Black Swan' Dance Double Claims Filmmakers Are 'Lying' [ABC]