Natalie Portman Interview For Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan

While on my Toronto trip I had the opportunity to talk to Natalie Portman about her new film Black Swan – from director Darren Aronofsky. The movie is a complete triumph, you won’t see a more haunting yet completely enchanting movie this year. I literally was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time! Check out what she had to say about the film below.

Congratulations on the movie. How does it feel to receive such a great response and all the Oscar buzz surrounding your performance?

Natalie Portman: The best thing with this movie is that everyone seems to be having a strong visceral response to Darren’s filmmaking. It’s both thought provoking, emotional and pure entertainment. It seems like everyone is responding really well which is a great outcome for the film. It’s very complimentary and flattering that people are talking about (Oscars), but obviously what we do is about wanting to make a film  that people connect to, that’s the biggest prize and also getting the opportunity to work with everyone I got to work with on this film.

What was it like doing all the ballet training? I heard you trained for a year.

Natalie Portman: Yeah, I did ballet until I was 12 then I stopped when I started to take acting seriously. Then I started again when I was 27, so there’s a 15 year gap. I did have a decent base, but the trainers that I worked with, including Mary Helen Bowers and Georgina Pazcoguin, were all so instrumental in shaping all of that. I had the greatest people in the ballet world training me.

How was Darren Aronofsky?

Natalie Portman: It was a great opportunity. Darren gave us these really complicated characters and he also gave us the freedom to bring what we wanted to the roles as well, it was a great generosity to be given the role and then being asked what do you think and have that openness, it was amazing. My experience working with Darren felt kind of telepathic. I never had that with any director before (laughs), Darren could say half a word and I felt like I could understand him, and I could say half a word and he could understand me. We were in some strange zone of focus that allowed us to share this intention.

Your character goes through all the emotions in Black Swan, what was it like portraying a character with such a huge range?

Natalie Portman: I think there was a great advantage in that Darren and I had started to talk about this film like 8 years ago. We started talking about it in 2002 when I was still in College. Darren had a very specific idea. What he told me in our first meeting became what the movie ended up being. He had the entire idea, it was not written but all of the themes were there, all of the plot points were there, the whole environment. So to have that sitting in the back of your mind for 8 years is a great help, it exists in your brain because you’ve been living with it for a long time, processing it when you’re not even aware of it.