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Sarah Lane in 'Black Swan': Fox Searchlight defends Natalie Portman
While Natalie Portman herself has remained mum on the situation, Fox Searchlight is coming to the actresses defense against her "Black Swan" body double, Sarah Lane.Lane, who was reportedly told to stay under the radar until after Portman's big Oscar win, has spoken up recently, saying that Portman may be receiving more credit than she deserves.
"As professional dancers, we work so hard, but people can actually believe that it's easy enough to do it in a year," she says. "That's the thing that bothered me the most."
She also adds, "Of the full body shots, I would say 5% are Natalie." On the contrary, the actress' fiance Benjamin Millepied tells the LA Times that "Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie." (All this math is just too complicated for us. We'll let you figure out what percentage of the film is allocated to 'full body shots,' and then compare and contrast the two figures.)
Fox Searchlight has responded to the allegations with a statement that reads:
"We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film."
In light of the controversy, a YouTube video showing many of the special effects used in the film -- including the digital replacement of Portman's face on to Lane's body -- has been removed.
Lane doesn't appear to have harsh feelings towards Portman herself, as she is sure to praise her hard work in said interviews. What do you think, Zappers? Does Lane deserve more credit than she's received? Do her allegations make you wonder if Portman deserved the Oscar?
[Update:] Director Darren Aronofsky did do the math for us! He tells EW, "I had my editor count. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that's 80% Natalie Portman. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie."
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Photo/Video credit: Fox Searchlight
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Hm.. Given that the DVD drops tomorrow and this comes up only now, the cynical-me thinks this is a PR plant. Anyone else thinks that way?
Why is she stepping forward? Do stuntmen come forward to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't really the one that is doing all of those dangerous spots? She should be keeping her silence.
People need to realize that Natalie did not win her Oscar for the dancing, but for the actual acting in the movie. If Sarah Lane was doubling for her when it came to the actual acting pieces, then she could complain, but she didn't. She is in essence, her stunt double, performing those scenes that the actor is unable to physically perform. We have seen it for years in all genres of movies, why should this instance be so special?
I am old enough to remember a similar fuss about the dance double for Jennifer Beals in Flashdance though I also remember thinking before the news came out "what a great dancerand not particularly whata great actress"Ms Beals apparently had several doubles including a guy (who did the revolving move in the performance at the end of the movie.To be fair I doubt too many people who saw Black Swan went away thinking about Ms. Portmen," what a great dancer " but more likely "she danced pretty well and did a great job as an actress"
"People need to realize that Natalie did not win her Oscar for the dancing, but for the actual acting in the movie."
Yeah, but it was also a reward for the dancing, as well. If it came out that she didn't perform most of the dances her chances would have gone down. Audrey Hepburn famously wasn't nominated for My Fair Lady in part because her songs were dubbed.
It is physically IMPOSSIBLE for an adult woman to train in ballet to this extent of ability in 1 1/2 yrs.IMPOSSIBLE.There is years and years of extensive strength building involved that must begin in early childhood to gain this sort of fluidity and grace and strength in ballet.Arm positions and simple pirouettes and the warm up stretches are all about what Ms. Portman did in this movie. There is NO way possible she could have trained to dance en pointe in one year and half. NO WAY. And no, I do not deny her acting ability and her deserving the award she's been given for acting in this movie. She is to be commended.
However a big part of the movie was watching the beauty of the dance...which in all cases came strictly from the dance body double...I didn't even know her name...all I know is she dances like an angel and deserves recgnition of some type.
The least Natalie could have done was give credit where credit is due to Sarah Lane.
This would not be happening if the studio hadn’t endlessly hyped Portman’s dance study and the lie that she did almost all the dancing herself. What the heck. She should have been honest — she did the acting, Lane did the dancing.
kat j said it exactly right!
Flashdance revisited