Mila Kunis defends Natalie Portman's "Black Swan" dancing
Mila Kunis, left, and Natalie Portman arrive at the "Black Swan" closing night gala during AFI FEST 2010 on Nov. 11, 2010, in Hollywood, Calif.
/ Getty(CBS) Mila Kunis is speaking out in favor of her "Black Swan" costar Natalie Portman, amid accusations that the Oscar-winner's dance double did the majority of the dancing in the film.
Portman's double, American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane, claims that the actress only did five percent of the dancing shown on screen.
Pictures: Natalie Portman
Pictures: Mila Kunis
Pictures: "Black Swan"
"Natalie danced her a-- off," Kunis told Entertainment Weekly on Monday. "I think it's unfortunate that this is coming out and taking attention away from [the praise] Natalie deserved and got."
Kunis said that Portman has been honest about what dancing she did and did not do in the film.
"She'll tell you [that], no, she was not on pointe when she did a fouette [turn]. No one's going to deny that. But she did do every ounce of every one of her dances," she said. "[Lane] wasn't used for everything. It was more like a safety net. If Nat wasn't able to do something, you'd have a safety net. The same thing that I had - I had a double as a safety net. We all did. No one ever denied it."
Portman won the Academy Award for best actress last month for her role in "Black Swan." The film's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied (who is also Portman's fiance), insisted in a recent Los Angeles Times interview that she did 85 percent of the dancing shown in the film.
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That's how easy it is to give credit where credit is due. This movie's credits even acknowledged the guy who told them where to park the cars. Instead they called her a "hand model", tried to wipe from existence a web video that showed how Portman's head was placed on Lane's body, and told her not to talk about this before the Oscars.
The shots in which Lane danced are the full body shots you actually remember from the film, including the actual final dance sequence and transformation scene and that rehearsal room scene with the choreographer and the mirror.
Portman's ballet instructor noted she had never even danced en pointe when the rehearsals began, although she did, a little, in the film. Most of Portman's work was the upper body work. Yes, that accounts for 80%. It doesn't actually account for the full body dancing.
Anyone who thinks that lessons as a kid plus six months of catch up makes you a ballerina knows nothing about the art of ballet. To anyone who does it is 100% obvious which shots use a professional dancer. It took 22 years of daily eight hour or more slog for Sarah Lane to get as good as she is (good enough to make the cover od Dance magazine and take lead roles), as it does for any prima ballerina.
You don't have to insult one art form in making another. Aronofsky shows a distinct lack of ethics.
Natalie Portman can barely stand on her tiptoes long enough to reach her cheerios on the second shelf of a cupboard, much less ballon petite all?gro across the stage. All her lying is just making it worse for her. She may be an okay actress but she is a lousy liar.
Those awards are nothing more than a bunch of rich actors (esses0 patting each other on the back so that the next time they "demand" $5 or $6 Mil to do a movie than can get it.
In the big scheme of things and what is happening in the world today this argument isn't a drop in the sea of life.