Natalie Portman shot only 5% of the ballet scenes in Black Swan. This is the accusation with which Sarah Lane, a 27-year-old professional dancer who served as a double for the actress in several scenes of the film that has earned her her first Oscar, has unmarked.
Portman's stunt barrage comes after Portman's fiancé, choreographer Benjamin Millepied, claimed the actress shot 85 percent of her dance scenes without a stunt double. A 'ghost' before which Lane has had to break her silence and go out to the media to end a "degrading" situation for both her and her profession.
Thus, and after denouncing that she has been the victim of a campaign and pressure from producers not to talk about this issue, the American Ballet Theater dancer denounced last weekend in statements to Entertainment Weekly that she has been the victim of a campaign to cover up their work and mislead the public. A campaign that had a clear objective: for Natalie to win the Oscar.
"Of the full-length shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie," says Sarah Lane, who even claims some long shots were digitally altered to put Portman's face. Some videos posted on Youtube and that have already been removed due to a copyright claim made by Fox.
And while she acknowledged that the medium shots are of the Israeli actress-"When the camera focuses on her face and arms, it's always Natalie Portman"-she also pointed out that those shots "do not show that she actually dances."
IT IS NOT JEALOUSY
Thus, she acknowledges that although she did not agree to any kind of special recognition for her work, what was happening was too degrading both for her and for her profession.
"It was all to make the public believe that Portman is a ballet prodigy, especially in the face of the Oscars. All this is damaging the profession, I have been doing this for 22 years ... do you think you can become a successful pianist in a year and a half, even if you're a movie star?" Lane claims.
Questioned about the reasons that have led her to make these revelations, Lane assures that they are not jealousy towards Portman, whom she describes as an "incredible actress". "I give him a lot of credit because in a year and a half he lost a lot of weight and really tried to go method and get into a professional dancer's head and feel like them," says the dancer, who points out that it is not about "nothing personal ". "I know it's just a political thing. An unfortunate loss of credibility"...
