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Portman was intrigued by Nina and Lily’s twisted, envy-driven relationship which operates on several
levels. “I like how when they first meet, they size each other up the way that girls really do,” she says. “It’s a
survival mechanism, to scope out who your biggest competition is and in this case, Nina sees right away that
Lily is gorgeous, talented and a total threat to her position. But she also doesn’t yet know who Lily really is.”
To reveal all this on screen, Portman put herself through both rigorous physical and psychological
preparations. The physical training was beyond anything she ever imagined, as she began training intensively,
with single-minded focus, for five hours a day, every day, some ten months before production even began. She
did so under the tutelage of several pro-level teachers and trainers -- including Mary Helen Bowers, formerly of
the New York City Ballet – who put her through a gruelingly complete dance education in record time.
“I did a tremendous amount of dancing, and I also did a lot of swimming and weight training as well as
cross training, so I wouldn’t get injured because dance is so hard on the body,” Portman explains. “It’s
incredibly challenging, trying to pick ballet up at 28. Even if you’ve taken dance lessons before, you just don’t
realize how much goes into it at the elite level. Every small gesture has to be so specific and so full of lightness
and grace. I knew it would be a challenge, but I never expected just how physically tough it turned out to be.”
In addition to having studied dance in her youth, Portman studied psychology at Harvard, which yielded
further insights into Nina’s disintegrating psyche, allowing the actress deeper into Nina’s surreal inner
experience. “I saw Nina as being caught in a cycle of obsession and compulsion,” she assesses. “The positive
side of that for artists and dancers is that by focusing so hard you can become a virtuoso, but then there’s a
much darker side, an unhealthy side, in which you can become completely lost. That’s where I had to take
Nina.”
Portman explored that darker side with fearlessness in each of Nina’s relationships: with the ballet
company’s relentless artistic director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) who pushes her to explore the unvisited,
dark corners inside herself; with her over-involved, former dancer mother (Barbara Hershey), who keeps a
constant close eye on Nina; and by the veteran dancer (Winona Ryder) whose career Nina once idolized and
whose sudden downfall sends her reeling.
SHADOWING THE SWAN:
THE SUPPORTING CAST
Surrounding Natalie Portman in BLACK SWAN is an accomplished supporting cast whose
performances add to the film’s hypnotic mix of beauty, mystery and fear.
To play Natalie Portman’s rival Lily, Aronofsky chose Mila Kunis, the Ukrainian born actress who has
been rapidly rising with roles in BOOK OF ELI and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, who brought the
brashness and dark charm to her role as the overly ambitious newcomer.
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