iArts & Entertainment
Natalie Portman,
in
Black Swan,
on ballet: "It's
almost religious
Consumed
With Dance
Natalie Portman heads cast of four
"Jewish ballerinas" in Darren Aronofsky's
psychological thriller Black Swan.
Amy Longsdorf
Featurewell.com
W
hen Natalie Portman cracked
open the script for Black Swan,
the saga of an ambitious balle-
rina's mind-blowing nervous breakdown, she
instantly understood where her character
was coming from.
Ifs not that Portman has any personal
experience with mental illness. In fact, the
actress, who's best known for roles in the
Star Wars prequels, Garden State and V For
Vendetta, has a reputation for being one of
the hardest-working, most well-adjusted
stars in Hollywood.
But Portman has a secret weapon when
it comes to sussing out troubled characters
— a degree in psychology from Harvard
University.
"This movie is actually a case of some-
thing that I learned in school translating into
something practical, which is very, very rare'
she says with a laugh during an interview
with a select group of journalists.
So, what's Dr. Portman's diagnosis of Nina,
a dancer who begins to lose her grip on san-
ity as she prepares to dance the starring role
in a pressure-cooker production of Swan
Lake?
"This is absolutely a case of obsessive
compulsive behavior," says Portman, a Jewish
native of Jerusalem who grew up in Long
Island, the only child of a doctor father and
an artist mother.
"Nina's bulimic. And anorexia and bulimia
are forms of OCD. Ballet really lends itself
to that because there's such a sense of ritual
that goes along with dancing — the wrap-
ping of the shoes everyday and the preparing
of new shoes for every performance.
"Ifs almost religious in nature. It's almost
like Jews putting on their tefillin or Catholics
with their rosary beads, and then [the danc-
ers] have a godlike character in their director.
So I think Nina suffers from a sort of reli-
gious obsessive compulsion. That would be
my professional opinion."
All of Black Swan's lead female charac-
ters — all current or past ballerinas — are
played by Jewish actresses: In addition
to Portman, 29, they include Barbara
Hershey (nee Herstein), 62; Winona Ryder
(nee Horowitz), 39; and Mila Kunis, 27, a
Ukrainian-born Soviet emigre.
Intense Preparation
From the beginning of Black Swan — Nina
has a loose grip on reality.
Locked in a too-close relationship with
her mother Erica (Hershey), she begins to
unravel after her company's artistic director
(Vincent Cassel) fires his star ballerina Beth
(Ryder) and hands the leading role in Swan
Lake over to her.
Nina's problems are intensified when a
new dancer named Lily (Kunis) joins the
company. The pair instantly begin a pas de
deux of love and hate, which pushes Nina
even closer to the brink. As one critic noted,
the film, helmed by Jewish director Darren
Aronofsky, 41, resembles "Mommie Dearest
meets Repulsion meets Single White Female."
Portman is in nearly every scene of the
drama, and it's her out-on-a-ledge perfor-
mance that is earning plenty of Oscar buzz.
Asked how she'd feel about a second nom-
ination (following her nod for Closer), the
actress says, "It would be a great, great honor.
"The best thing that you can hope for
when you make a movie and you put your
soul into it, like all of us have done, is that
people respond to it well. The fact that audi-
ences have come away moved and excited
and entertained and stimulated is extraordi-
narily flatterine
If awards were given out for the most
harrowing preparation for a performance,
Portman would surely pirouette to the podi-
um on Oscar night. A veteran of eight years
of dance training (from the ages of 4-12),
Portman still needed to work out for nearly
14 months to get into tip-top shape.
Portmads teachers included former New
York City Ballet company member Mary
Helen Bowers and choreographer Benjamin
Millepied (whom the actress is now dating
but declines to discuss).
So, what exactly did Portman put herself
through while preparing to play a ballerina?
"Mary and I did about two hours [of
dancing] a day for about six months:' recalls
Pho to by N iko Tavern ise/Fox Sea rc hl ig ht
in nature."
the actress. "That was really just sort of
strengthening exercises, getting me ready to
do more so that I wouldn't get injured.
"Then at about six months, we started
doing five hours a day. I was swimming
a mile a day, toning and then doing three
hours of ballet a day. Two months before
shooting, we added the choreography. So, by
the end, we were doing eight hours a day."
Portman says the intensity of the prepara-
tion allowed her to get under Nina's skin.
"The physical discipline helped for the
emotional side of the character because
working out eight hours a day, you get the
sense of the monastic element of a ballet
dancer's life.
"You don't drink. You don't go out with
friends. You don't have much food. You
are constantly putting your body through
extreme pain. I came to understand the self-
flagellation of a ballet dancer."
Telepathic Relationship
Amazingly, in the midst of her intense work-
out regime, Poi tman went off to Ireland
to shoot a romantic comedy called Her
Highness with James Franco and Danny
McBride.
"They were out having fun every night,
and I was the little good girl — no drinking,
waking up at 5 to do my workouts and not
eating': Portman told Entertainment Weekly.
"I was the really un-fun one."
Still, despite all of the sacrifices she made,
Portman calls Black Swan one of the best
experiences of her career.
"My relationship with Darren felt almost
telepathic' she raves. "I never had that with
any director before. Darren could say half a
word and I felt like I could understand him,
and I could say half a word and he could
understand me. We were in some strange
zone of focus."
The idea for Black Swan began with
Aronofsky more than a decade ago. During
the making of Requiem For a Dream, he
kicked around ideas for a script called
The Understudy. A few screenwriters later,
Aronofsky's idea was honed into Black Swan
by scriptwriter Mark Heyman, who also
worked on the director's previous film, The
Wrestler.
According to Aronofsky, Black Swan was
hard to get financed despite the acclaim —
and Oscar nominations — that The Wrestler
racked up.
"Two weeks out, the money fell apart': says
the director. "But we were very lucky because
we got Fox Searchlight to come in after we
were on our hands and knees begging. We
had so little money, so every single day was
difficult.
"Everyday was, like, `Oh, my gosh, we have
to do all that today: and then there was no
money for post-production and we had to do
over 300 special effects shots so it was very,
very hard."
Having to push back the production
forced Poi tman to keep on practicing —
and dieting.
"I didn't realize until recently that every
time we [delayed our start date], Natalie was
going, Another three weeks of carrot sticks
and almonds! I'm gonna kill you!' So she
really was tortured pretty badly because we
had such a hard time getting the money for
the film."
As tortured as Portman was, she was able
to shake off the role the day the production
wrapped.
"As soon as I finish a scene, I'm back to
being me," she says. "I want to be myself
again. I'm not someone who likes to stay in
character. This dearly had a kind of disci-
pline that lent itself to me being more like
my character while we were shooting the
film than any past experiences. But even so,
when it's over, its over. I'm back to my regu-
lar life."
On the last day of filming, Portman kicked
off the ballet footwear she'd grown to detest
— "pointe shoes are torture devices; they felt
medieval to me," she declares — and went
back to eating her favorite fattening foods.
"I believe the first meal I ate afterward was
paste she says. "For breakfast, lunch and
dinner." ❑
Black Swan, rated R, is scheduled
to open in Detroit-area theaters on
Friday, Dec.10.
December 9 • 2010
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