NATALIE PORTMAN: BODY DOUBLE CONTROVERSY FOR PREGNANT OSCAR-WINNER NATALIE PORTMAN! « Showbiz Spy

NATALIE PORTMAN: BODY DOUBLE CONTROVERSY FOR PREGNANT OSCAR-WINNER NATALIE PORTMAN!

Posted by Adam

Monday March 28, 2011

NATALIE Portman apparently used a body double for her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan.

The movie beauty bagged the Best Actress Academy Award for her turn as unstable dancer Nina in the film last month — but has since faced claims a body double was used for most of the complicated ballet dancing scenes.

American Ballet Theater dancer Sarah Lane recently told Entertainment Weekly, “Of the full body shots, I would say five per cent are Natalie… I do want people to know that you cannot absolutely become a professional ballet dancer in a year and a half no matter how hard you work. I’ve been doing this for 22 years.”

Now Fox Searchlight bosses have issued a statement to address the criticism.

“We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film,” said the statement.

Natalie Portman

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Tags: natalie portman, natalie portman body double

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Jason Hull
So what! They give Oscars for acting, not for dancing.

Cora
BIG DEAL!!!!!!!! SARAH’S JUST THIRSTY 4 SOME ATTENTION. WELL, HERE YOU ARE SARAH………….ENJOY YOUR 15 MINUTES.
jc
They give Oscars to who they want to win, not for acting. Quality and winning have never been synonomous for the Academy. They pick the ‘hot ticket’.

iiiiiii
Well no duh, almost everyone uses a body double.
It seems that Lane is just thirsty for attention.

Evan
Fyi, there are some beautiful artistic nude shots of Sarah Lane posted at http://LxCURL.com/hot-picts
What an incredible body!

Peggy
I bet this body double’s career is over!! I can’t believe she’s complaining now, just because Natalie won an Oscar. She got the oscar for acting not just dancing.
The body double probably wants money!!
If she wants to be recognize as the dancer, she shouldn’t get a job as a body double!!
Jack Straw
We already knew this. What would really break my heart if she used one for the love scenes?
Amy B
This is not news- they said from the beginning that a dance double was used. *eye roll*
Anony
IMO the movie sucked. It really didn’t capitalize on Portman’s character being unstable. We get a couple of mood swings here and there. A lot of back head shots which to me was pointless, and we get senseless sexual scenes that weren’t even necessary. As for the body double, get over it. Body doubles only get recognized in the credits. You don’t see other body doubles and stunt devils trying to steal the spotlight do you? As for Portman’s dancing abilities it was stated that she danced until she was 13. Some people can become good at what they do if they practice hard enough.
Melanie
Can you say deja vu and Flashdance?
ekahiway
Sarah Lane doesn’t need anyone’s attention… she’s a soloist with the Ameican Ballet Theatre in NYC. Maybe you two knuckleheads should ask yourselves why Fox Searchlight never came out with this statement about how ‘fortunate’ they were to have Lane while Portman was on the Oscar campaign trail? Lane herself has stated that Fox Searchlight execs told her to shut up about her involvement in the film and Millepied (Portman’s fiancé) has minimized Lane’s contribution. Anybody remember the name Marine Jahan? No, I didn’t think so… she’s simply that girl who body doubled for Jennifer Beals in Flashdance… nobody remembers her name.
Colonel Angus
Agreed, Oscars are based on acting, not dancing or else what’sherface in Flashdance would have garnered a golden idol. Thank goodness she didn’t. I believe this is case of sour grapes and wanting to grab some of the Oscar attention, just like that nutjob hand model who donned the cover of the Twilight book. So she held an apple, big effin deal and now she appears at conventions to charge for autographs???? Crazy people.

seymour
Your comments actually prove the dancer’s point. The actress in Flashdance didn’t dance either, and that was a huge controversy too, for the same reason. In Flashdance, like the Black Swan, the studio tried to act like the actress did all the dancing, and it wasn’t true in either case.
The dancer has a legitimate point. The studio and media gave a lot of coverage to Portman’s dancing, and it wasn’t really her.

http://Yahoo William Betts
My 14 year old Great Grand Daughter is a shoe in for a younger Natalie Portman. Who do I send the photo’s to. The dance double stand in should be ashamed of herself. She is going to have a problem in the future because of her antics re: Natalie.
Victor
Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Acting not dancing.
Oh Sarah you are an excellent dancer, you dont need this.
http://ShowBizSpy Jim Conner
Did anyone, esp Natalie, ever say that a double was not used for 95% of the real dancing full-body shots ??? That would be the only “problem”… Only a dodo (I like that word, sorry…) would have ever believed…
http://ShowBizSpy Jim Conner
Did anyone, esp Natalie, ever say that a double was not used for 95% of the real dancing full-body shots ??? That would be the only “problem”… Only a dodo (I like that word, sorry…) would have ever believed…
Walking Tall
If Portman didn’t do the majority of the dance scenes, then she’s a fraud for accepting the Oscar under false pretensions (and I can’t stand ballet). It’s like lip syncing: if the person is pretending to sing the song but only mouths the words to the music and afterwards says that he/she did indeed sing the song, then we all label that person as a fraud. No difference here. If this information had been known BEFORE the Oscar vote was taken for Portman, it’s a good bet she never would have won because the ballet scenes (and this is a ballet movie) were not done with Portman but someone else so whatever capturing of the role would not have been Portman’s but the body double.

Right Thinking
She didn’t win the International Ballet Competition. She won for acting in a movie.

jes
This body double ballerina sure is the black swan herself,she’s not the actress!!
http://none pat sierra
So what a lot of stars use doubles, it is the acting that counts. She is a great actress and should have won a long time ago. People should lay off these young stars, leave them alone, they have enough problems being in the public eye all the time.
JG
Old news…time to move along people.
http://yahoo Em
What an ungrateful bitch! She’ll never get another job as a double that’s for sure! And she deserves SOME credit, and certainly not the Oscar!
http://ashtonslc@yahoo.com slcdeb
I assumed during the movie a double/dancer was doing most of it. Natalie was the actress. Most films utilize their actors that way and have experts to do the more technical/physical work an actor couldn’t possibly be an expert at. Dubbed voices for musicals would be a big example. Everyone knew Audrey Hepburn was not singing in My Fair Lady but that did not detract from her marvelous performance as an actress. Same as Ms. Portman. She showed herself to fine a wonderful actor.
James
I watched this movie with my girlfriend who was a ballet background and she told me that was not Natalie Portman due to the fact that there was no way that Natalie Portman could of done those dance scenes with only a year and half of training. It takes years to master those complicated ballet dancing movements. So was anyone really surprise to find out that the producers used a professional ballet dancer?
Ronald Rehfeldt
Her Oscar (Registered Trademark) indeed was for acting, not for dancing. The dancer deserves her credit; Natalie deserves her. We should get our underwear twisted up on such a matter. Ron Rehfeldt, Chicago
Ronald Rehfeldt
Her Oscar (Registered Trademark) indeed was for acting, not for dancing. The dancer deserves her credit; Natalie deserves her. We should get our underwear twisted up on such a matter. Ron Rehfeldt, Chicago
Jenna
1. This woman took the job knowing full well that doubles which are used in the majority of film when it comes to things like this do NOT GET CREDIT. Those are the rules, period. Body doubles, stuntmen, etc…are NOBODIES when it comes to the actual presentation of the film.
2. While Natalie Portman is not a ballet dancer she is in fact a DANCER who started dancing at the age of 4 years old. So where as she might not be a classical trained ballerina she is a trained dancer who has actual stage performance experience as a dancer. I am 100% positive that this training helped her to do the scenes she did in fact do on her own.
3. When it comes to the Oscars it is in fact the ACTING PERFORMANCE that matters not the dancing. Her acting in this movie was STELLAR to say the least. She earned that Oscar with her acting alone! PERIOD!
Leave the girl alone and quit your whining Sara Lane. You can bet your ass you won’t be getting any more work in Hollywood, you just blacklisted yourself!
Iam Thebest
Where most of you dullards are failing is in the fact that you don’t recognize that if an actress claims that she was indeed the one pulling off most if not all of the complicated dance moves, then yes, we have a major problem. IT IS CALLED LYING. Now I realize that most of you don’t have a problem with this because you too are most likely filthy liars as well. I, however, NEVER lie and I have integrity. Something that some of you and Ms. Portman appear not to possess.
Jenna
Oh and for the record, it would be nice for all of these news venues to point out Portman’s history as a dancer. It isn’t as if she just threw on some fake feet and pretended. The girl knows how to dance! Take a dancer , put on some ballet shoes, give her a year and a half of serious ballet training and you can get a decent Ballerina out of the deal!
Marcel
Walking Tall says:
March 28, 2011 at 6:50 pm
If Portman didn’t do the majority of the dance scenes, then she’s a fraud for accepting the Oscar under false pretensions (and I can’t stand ballet). It’s like lip syncing: if the person is pretending to sing the song but only mouths the words to the music and afterwards says that he/she did indeed sing the song, then we all label that person as a fraud. No difference here. If this information had been known BEFORE the Oscar vote was taken for Portman, it’s a good bet she never would have won because the ballet scenes (and this is a ballet movie) were not done with Portman but someone else so whatever capturing of the role would not have been Portman’s but the body double.
EXCELLENT EXPLANATION, Walking Tall and I fully agree with you. She IS a FRAUD! SHE took CREDIT for someone else’s work and never even gave Sarah Lane credit in her Oscar Winning speech.
As for ACTING… I don’t think she can Act either. Would it perchance be about whom you know and not your acting ability?
My Goodness
Come on, people. Just like Sarah said, you can’t become a professional ballerina in just a month. I can’t beleive people actually thought Portman did all of that. 99% of the time there’s a double doing the more complicated scenes, and ballet’s not excluded. My friend takes ballet, and she told me that ballet is very difficult and that you want to start young because a lot of people just drop out because of how hard it is. It’s common sense, for Pete’s sake.
meme
It was quite obvious watching the movie that Natalie did not perform all of the dancing. And I’m sorry but Sarah is right, it takes years of training to be able to dance like that on pointe shoes and no way could Natalie have done that. She just wants people to be aware of that is all! You have to give credit where credit is due.
Iam Thebest
And I will tell you something else. Natalie came off during her talk show interview circuit run as if she did all of the dancing in the movie. If you doubt what I am expressing to you, simply google some of her interviews back when she was doing the press junkets and you will see and hear for yourself that she seemed to be indicating that she did indeed do her own dancing for the movie. That is dishonest and being a complete fraud and a liar if it’s true that Sarah did most of the filmed dance sequences. It is completely misleading at the very least.
self evident
News flash, the actor didn’t do any driving in “Talladega Nights” either.

Iam Thebest
This may well be true (DUH) however your statement is completely inappropriate in the context of the commentary occurring regarding the initial post. It is well known that the actor didn’t do any driving in that movie nor did the actor make any claims to that effect. Whereas Natalie appeared to lead the audience to believe that she did indeed perform the dance sequences filmed for the movie.

Areyouserious?
Wow!! It seems to me like Marcel, Iam Thebest, seymour, and ekahiway are either friends of Sarah Lane, or Sarah Lane herself. Sarah you obviously have no class. You knew what was going to happen when you signed on, and if you didn’t then you are really naive. Natalie Portman is a great actress and DANCER. Just because she didn’t do all of the dance scenes doesn’t mean that she is any less of an actress. Doubles are used everyday and they don’t get credit. What makes you any different?

Iam Thebest
You must be mentally ill to actually believe that Sarah Lane would be posting on this site on assumed names. And to address Sarah as if she were here is indicative of the fact that you either missed your medication today, or are in need of your dose STAT. We are not claiming that Natalie is any less of an actress because of what has occurred. We are not claiming that Natalie isn’t a terrific actress worthy of the Oscar. What we are stating is the fact that if Natalie led the public to believe that she was the one who was doing all the dance moves filmed for the movie while in reality it was a double then this is wrong and an outright lie. This is called integrity of the lack thereof. Do you understand this concept?

Marcel
Are you serious? Far from it I would say. I don’t have to POSE as anyone in order to have my say. Obviously YOU are friend with Natalie and that is why you are carrying on the way you are. Now… If you READ carefully, you would have seen that Sarah was TOLD not to say she was the body double… WHY? So that Portman could take ALL the credit? hmmmmmmm Natalie cannot dance or act. I thought her acting was pathetic and she should never have won. I thought Winter’s Bone actress Jennifer Lawrence did a far better job and should have won the Oscar instead.
Go and read what Walking Tall said – he has it down 100% but of course, that probably went OVER your head.
Pavel
Black Swan is the most overrated movie I have ever seen. It was horrible! People in the theater were gasping at the violence, then laughing on the way out about how absurd the whole movie was.
Shawn C
She lied to defend Alan Dershowitz against charges of plagiarism, now Banjamin Millipied is returning the favor.
Taking credit for other people’s work a fine Harvard tradition.
FortWorthTX
This chick needs to get over herself. In almost every movie that has scenes where the actor or actress obviously could not do as well as a professional, such as the dance scenes (just like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance had)they use body doubles. That’s why the body doubles sign on, they know going into it. The Oscar is given for the actress’ acting, not her dancing. Go in and slow-mo a lot of nude scenes in movies, a lot of times, you’ll find it’s not the actress or actor’s body. It’s very common and isn’t something that needs to be part of the movie’s advertisement. Anyone who doesn’t know that is an idiot. The body doubles are in the business of body double, NOT being up for an Oscar.
Maxwell
Stop complaining about the dancer wanting credit for her dancing. Didn’t you all notice that the credits in the movie named her as the “hand model?” If I did most of the dancing and I wanted to add it to my resume, it wouldn’t help me to be named as a “hand model” when in fact I did the real dancing. Get over yourselves. She doesn’t want fame, just acknowledgment for the honest work that she did!
Maxwell
Actually, now that I think about it, this dancer deserves much more credit. She danced for two different personalities. Each having it’s own interpretation of the what was to be delivered and in essence, acted as two different people. Wow! It was this change in dancing style that people were really amazed with in the movie. This switch from white innocent swan to the much more worldly black swan was amazing. This is what Natalie won for and if it wasn’t even done by her, because these dancing scenes were really highlighted in the movie, not only should she get credited as something other than a “hand model” she should get the proper acknowledgment for her work. Done!

Iam Thebest
WELL PUT!!! Kudos to Maxwell!

aaaly
Ummm, I do belive in an interview just around the time it the movie came out Natalie did say she did “Most” of the dancing. She never said she did it all. I don’t get why this is such a big suprise.

Iam Thebest
Okay. This is key. If this is true and can be proven via video and audio segments then we can put our argument to rest. If this is the case, then Natalie is eminently providing facts regarding the body double situation in terms of recognizing that not all the dance scenes were Natalie but instead a body double. Natalie is not a liar and she did not mislead anybody insofar as having a body double providing assistance to Natalie for the more difficult dance sequences.

sylvia
Sarah is right that you can’t become a dancer in a year and a half HOWEVER Natalie had dance experience, almost 10 years in fact when she was a child. While with time your ability to perform might lack a little, with hardcore training she could definitely get back on her toes in a year and a half. While this movie was in production Natalie was training very hard on the dancing. She spent lots of hours a day and sometimes even worked 6 or 7 days out of the week on it. I doubt she went thru all that to NOT dance.
I was a dancer for 7 years and it’s been about 2 years since I danced but it’s still in there. It’s like math, you may forget it over time but it sticks in there and all you have to do is refresh your memory. Reteaching takes a lot less time than teaching fresh from the start which is what Natalie went thru.

Iam Thebest
Wow! Sylvia that is so cool. I love and respect Dancers! You have the best bodies in the world bar none! 7 years of dancing is tremendous. You must be in such phenomenal shape. Even with the two year layoff, once you’ve had your body complete 7 years of training, your body never loses the foundation that you have constructed. I would love to see a pic of your body. Any chance that you can upload a pic of your body (no face = no recognition) in the avatar space? That would be so cool Sylvia. I’m sure there are other guys like me out here that would also appreciate your beauty displayed immensely. I am sort of similar to you because I am an athlete and train all the time and I’m in good shape (at the risk of sounding like a self loving braggart I don’t want to go on about how tight and muscular I am and the hours of training I have to do for my sport) so that’s why I am so interested in you. You being a fellow athlete will now understand my interest and my complete feeling of appreciation for you.

sylvia
I appreciate that but I don’t even know how to post a pic of myself on this site I only stumbled across this article through yahoo. Not to mention I find it odd that a complete stranger is asking for a pic of my body. Thanks for all the feel good vibes though.

L Man
Your Welcome Sylvia, lol, It is sort of odd asking you for a pic. It’s really making me laugh at myself now. It just struck me last night when you mentioned that you were a dancer. Maybe my testosterone was extra high last night. First thing I thought of was I wonder how hot Sylvia looks? LOL.
Iam Thebest
I just now finished watching Black Swan. Natalie Portman did a fantastic job. Just a superb performance and worthy of an Oscar. That movie was really disturbing. So many emotions evoked. She danced very well in the flick and she also had the appearance of an actual professional ballerina. Amazing job by Natalie.
Iam Thebest
I just now finished watching Black Swan. Natalie Portman did a fantastic job. Just a superb performance and worthy of an Oscar. That movie was really disturbing. So many emotions evoked. She danced very well in the flick and she also had the appearance of an actual professional ballerina. Amazing job by Natalie.
Iam Thebest
Anybody else have difficulty time to time posting on this site? It’s so weird sometimes posting here. This is the only site that I have a problem posting on.