Mila Kunis: Natalie Portman Did "Every Ounce of Every One of Her Dances" in Black Swan
Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman
Mila Kunis is the latest to come to Natalie Portman's defense against her dance double's claims that the Oscar winner only did a small portion of the dancing in Black Swan.
"Natalie danced her a-- off," Kunis tells Entertainment Weekly. "I think it's unfortunate that this is coming out and taking attention away from [the praise] Natalie deserved and got."
Black Swan director: Natalie Portman did 80 percent of the dancing
Last week, American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane told EW that Portman performed approximately 5 percent of the dance footage in the final cut of the film, while she did the rest. Lane added that the film's producer, Ari Handel, asked her not to discuss her work with the press because the producers wanted to play up Portman's dancing for her Oscar campaign.
Kunis, however, says Portman has always been upfront in interviews about having Lane as a double for the more difficult sequences.
"She'll tell you [that], no, she was not on pointe when she did a fouetté [turn]," Kunis says. "No one's going to deny that. But she did do every ounce of every one of her dances. [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."
See photos of Natalie Portman
Kunis' defense of Portman follows that of director Darren Aronofsky, who released a statement Monday saying he determined Portman did 80 percent of the dancing after going through all the dance shots in the film.