How Natalie Portman lost herself in ‘Black Swan’
Natalie Portman‘s portrayal of Nina, the highly dedicated ballerina, in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan is easily one of the actor’s standout performances. The role, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, was incredibly demanding, seeing Portman follow in the tradition of many actors who extend themselves to their limits to achieve perfection. In many senses, the actor’s dedication to the role mirrored the obsessive nature of her character.
Black Swan follows Nina, a devoted yet shy dancer, living at home with her mother, who still treats her like a child. The dance company requires a dancer to fulfil the dual roles of the White and Black Swan in a production of Swan Lake. However, whereas innocent and fragile Nina makes the perfect White Swan, her rival Lily is much better suited to the sensual Black Swan character. Obsessed with becoming the Black Swan, Nina pushes herself to become the best she can be, destroying herself in the process.
Aronofsky had been interested in making a ballet-themed movie for a decade before the film’s release, with Portman in mind as his perfect leading actor. Once the script was underway, Portman began training for her role, despite still being on set for the stoner comedy Your Highness. Although the actor had trained in ballet and modern dance at the American Theater Dance Workshop as a child, she had to ease herself back in by working with former New York City Ballet dancer Mary Helen Bowers. Portman told Collider that she “would do two hours a day for the first six months, and that was really just strengthening and getting me ready to do more, so that I wouldn’t get injured.”
She continued, “At about six months, we started doing five hours a day. We added in swimming, so I was swimming a mile a day, toning and then doing three hours of ballet class a day.” However, the actor kept extending the amount of ballet she was practising, “Two months before, we added the choreography, so we were doing probably eight hours a day.”
The actor shared how the physical training assisted her emotionally for the role because “you get the sense of the monastic lifestyle of only working out, that is a ballet dancer’s life.” She continued, “You don’t drink, you don’t go out with your friends, you don’t have much food, and you are constantly putting your body through extreme pain, so you get that understanding of the self-flagellation of a ballet dancer.”
Portman dropped 20 pounds to achieve the slender ballerina frame despite already possessing a slim build. The actor lived primarily off carrots and almonds, which led her to consume pasta “for breakfast, lunch and dinner” once shooting wrapped. She told TimeOut that the pressure to be skinny as a ballerina is rampant in the industry, leaving a large majority of dancers with some form of an eating disorder. “People would tell me all the time—the ballet coaches and Darren—’You don’t really look like a ballerina yet,’ which was code for: ‘You’re not skinny enough.”
She explained, “It’s a very obsessive-compulsive art. There’s so much ritual in it: doing the barre every day, prepping the shoes. There are so many compulsive behaviours which lead to virtuosity. […] But then there are the negative manifestations, like eating disorders, which are totally connected to that.”
Luckily, Portman didn’t completely lose herself in the role like Nina does. The actor’s performance is one of the most remarkable depictions of obsession and identity on screen in recent years, highlighting the lengths someone can go to achieve perfection.
