Darren Aronofsky Says Natalie Portman Danced 80%

Last Friday, Natalie Portman’s body double in Black Swan, Sarah Lane, told EW that she did most of the dancing in the movie and that studios were trying to cover it up because they wanted Natalie to look like a prodigy during Oscar season.

In a statement released through Fox Searchlight, director Darren Aronofsky scoffs at the claims and uses his fancy college boy reasoning to debunk the rumor.

Here is the reality. I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that’s 80% Natalie Portman. What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman.
And to be clear Natalie did dance on pointe in pointe shoes. If you look at the final shot of the opening prologue, which lasts 85 seconds, and was danced completely by Natalie, she exits the scene on pointe. That is completely her without any digital magic. I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor. Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance. And I don’t want anyone to think that’s not her they are watching. It is.”

Uh huh. You think you can throw out a bunch of numbers and percentages and everyone will believe you? Oh, look at Mr. Fancy Pants here. He knows how to add, subtract and divide. What? You think you’re better than me? Is that it?!