Mila Kunis Joins in Defense of Natalie Portman in Black Swan

EW.com is reporting that actress Mila Kunis has joined the defense of her co-star Natalie Portman. It seems Portman’s dance double for the film the Black Swan, which won Portman her first Oscar for Best Actress, is alleging that “95 percent of Portman’s full-body dance shots” are actually shots of her. The dance double’s name is Sarah Lane. She’s an American Ballet Theatre soloist.

Kunis says this statement is simply untrue. “Natalie danced her a– off,” says Kunis. “I think it’s unfortunate that this is coming out and taking attention away from [the praise] Natalie deserved and got.”

Kunis also says Portman has been honest about how much of the demanding footwork she was — and wasn’t — able to do. “She’ll tell you [that], no, she was not on pointe when she did a fouetté [turn]. No one’s going to deny that. But she did do every ounce of every one of her dances,” she says. “[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.”

In fact, CNN is reporting today on THR‘s story that the film’s director is also defending Portman. Here is what Darren Aronofsky had to say:

Here is the reality. I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that’s 80% Natalie Portman. What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second. 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 Portman.

Have you seen Black Swan yet? Don’t forget to check out our review of the psychological drama.