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“Darren and I had talked for years about doing a ballet thriller,” recalls Heyman. “What I did was to
take the initial drafts of the screenplay and adapt the plot of ‘Swan Lake’ right into the center of it. That
changed everything and became the jumping off point for a modern New York story about duality, about
doubles and about the fear of someone or something taking over your life.”
“The story became about Nina’s fears of losing who she is,” continues Aronofsky. “That is something I
think everyone can relate to, but Nina becomes completely overtaken by those fears until her reality becomes
inseparable from the character she is playing.”
As the final script became a world unto itself, Heyman says it was increasingly difficult to place it into
a genre. Was the story a plunge into biological horror as a woman morphs into a demon swan or a riveting
portrait of a driven artist losing control of her mind under extreme pressure? Heyman hopes the answer is both
things at once.
“My favorite films are always difficult to categorize,” says Heyman. “Our hope for BLACK SWAN
is that it would be one of those films. That it would scare people but also get under the skin in a lasting way.”
The project soon attracted a producing team that included Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian
Oliver and Scott Franklin. “This is both new ground and familiar territory for Darren. On the one hand, it is a
departure for him into the psychological thriller element, which is something he’s never really attempted before
and yet it evokes an intense realism with his attention to detail, camera style and the way he works with actors
to get very real performances,” says Franklin.
Adds Oliver, “If you’ve seen Darren’s films, you know he’s doesn’t do anything in a standard way.
Just as THE WRESTLER made people really feel what it would be like to be an aging wrestler, he delves
deeply into the world of a dancer, while building psychological suspense to fantastic levels.”
Executive producer Jennifer Roth says of the film, “BLACK SWAN is not simply a thriller nor a movie
about dance. It encompasses all these different aspects and crosses over to a dark but fascinating place.”
WOMAN INTO SWAN:
NATALIE PORTMAN AS NINA
Even before the screenplay for BLACK SWAN was completed, Darren Aronofsky knew who would
play Nina, the hopeful solo dancer overtaken by unsettling fantasies and eerie events as she prepares for the
greatest role of her life. It had to be Natalie Portman, whose diversity of memorable roles ranges from Queen
Amidala in the STAR WARS series to her Oscar®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning role as a stripper in
Mike Nichols’ adaptation of CLOSER. Not only had Portman studied ballet as a child, more importantly, she
had the commitment and drive to plunge into the immense physical and psychological demands of a part that
would have her leaping, spinning and losing touch with reality, all at the same time.
Aronofsky approached her several years ago to talk about the film, then still in a fledgling state.
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