Natalie Portman won an Oscar this year for being able to hold her face in the same position for two straight hours in Black Swan. The same consistency can’t be applied to her footing as a ballerina, according to Portman’s dance double in the film, Sarah Lane.
Lane told EW this week that Portman herself was only featured in “five percent” of the “full body shots.” Technology, she explains, was used to put Portman’s face on her body.
Another film that deals with burgeoning technology comes to mind, wherein the protagonist of a big screen spectacle also turns out to be a faker. Singin' in the Rain (1952) takes a nostalgic look back at the emergence of sound in cinema, and features a plot wherein an actress with an ugly voice is covered on screen by a clear–voiced beauty played by Debbie Reynolds, who is also a romantic rival for Gene Kelly’s affections. With Kelly’s help, the true songbird is revealed at the end of the film to due praise and fanfare.
Fittingly, it looks like Lane might have an ally to Portman’s fiance Benjamin Millepied, who innocently asserted to the press that Lane “just did the footwork” for Portman.
Being that “the footwork” seems like a pretty crucial aspect of being a ballerina, Millepied’s stupid defense may in fact be a carefully planned conspiracy to out Portman’s fraud, planned alongside the true talent of the film and his heart’s desire.
Too bad the opportunity to pull back the curtain from Portman’s Oscar acceptance speech and reveal Sarah Lane as the true prima ballerina of Black Swan has already passed.
