Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman's Fiance, Defends Her 'Black Swan' Dancing

Natalie Portman won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a tortured dancer in "Black Swan," but some have called her dancing integrity into question. Benjamin Millepied, Portman's "Black Swan" dance partner and choreographer (not to mention her fiance and the father of her future child), swears that's all nonsense.

Millepied is featured in a new Los Angeles Times article that focuses on both his career in dance and his relationship with Portman. The French-born former dance prodigy personally instructed Portman in her film dancing and even wrote her routine. The accusations are baseless, he says.

"It was so believable, it was fantastic, that beautiful movement quality," he told the paper. "There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Sarah Lane, her body double] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio. Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie."

Portman spoke throughout the film's promotion of the tireless work she did in an effort to both perfect her dancing and her dancer's body, saying that at one point, she thought she was going to die.

Millepied revealed how he helped Portman's onscreen dancing seem so graceful; it just took some creative choreographing.

"[I made] things fluid and not too complicated," he said. "By getting more movement going, which in turn added to the camera movement — that is basically what I did. If we had kept things more classical, more restrained, less fluid, it would have been harder to trick the eye."

Portman studied ballet until she was 13 years old, giving her a foundation for her training. The Huffington Post interviewed one of her dancing doubles, Kimberly Prosa, who spoke about what Portman was able to pull off:

"Natalie took class, she studied for several months, from the waist up is her," Prosa said. "Sarah Lane, a soloist at ABT, did the heavy tricks, she did the fouéttes, but they only had her for a limited time, a couple of weeks, so I did the rest of whatever dance shots they needed.

"She [Portman] definitely put her work in. Just in a couple of months, she looked credible -- all the dancers on the set were really impressed at how well she pulled that off -- it was pretty amazing."

For more on Millepied, including his own film ambitions and future in ballet, click over to the Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[IndianVegan]

03:32 PM on 03/27/2011

I have seen many of Jackie Chan's old Hong Kong movies having read that he did his stunts himself. What if it turns out that he was lying and it was actually some other person doing the stunts? Is this similar to this case?

[tyrant510]

03:00 AM on 03/27/2011

At the end of the day, Ms. Portman won the Oscar for her acting, not her dancing. We know she's not a dancer. Her body double needs to move on.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:27 PM on 03/27/2011

why? .....the truth is.........she has a voice......but she also signed on..........thats show biz...smoke and mirrors..I couldn't buy it......the whole movie was atrocious...

[tyrant510]

12:15 AM on 03/28/2011

she does have a voice and unfortunately so do you. the film was brilliant. wonderfully passionate, original, well acted and audacious. the best of the year. you obviously have little, or very pedestrian taste.

[Sansea]

02:53 PM on 03/26/2011

Times sure have changed. I remember Flashdance with Jennifer Beals. The focus of the movie was on her amazing dancing. We all thought it was Jennifer and, of course, it was not. But that didn't come out for a long time because it was no big deal. We don't expect it to be Stallone, Schwarzenegger, et al, to be doing their own stunts hanging off cliffs and the like. Those stunt men have a profession and, like the dancer here, their stunts make the movie. She was a double, she was not the star, the dancing was lovely to be sure but the movie was not about the dance, per se, it was about the characters. Someone needs to calm their ego a bit.

[ewj1]

07:29 PM on 03/26/2011

Flashdance was considered a bad movie by a lot of critics and the dance double was just a pile on about one month after the film came out. Stallone never claimed to do his own stunts, Portman and husband-to-be claimed she danced, many critics claimed they were amazed by her dancing. Just check rotten tomatoes.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:28 PM on 03/27/2011

It was a big deal however...It was a French girl.............That danced in Flashdance...Times were different...They shut her up...But it was a big deal.......Trust me.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

05:49 AM on 03/26/2011

The problem is that she did not dance for most of the film. This dancer has a legitimate gripe in that not only was she not credited for her work but, the credit was given to Natalie. They intentionally implied that she did most all the work when that was not the case. She should have won the Oscar for her acting but they should have been honest and given credit where it was due for the dancing.

Most of us want to be appreciated for our efforts and that is all this dancer wanted. Natalie was not the dance prodigy that they tauted her to be at the expense of person who did the actual work. Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood used voice doubles in their musicals and it was not a secret. The women that did the singing got credit for their work. the actors did NOT try to pass it off as their own as they are obviously trying to do in this case. Did she deserve her oscar? Yes, because ACTING like a dancer that has lost her mind is what she was good at. Not dancing.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:30 PM on 03/27/2011

Let me say this...Actors will never suffer like the " Dancer"......Never..........So the truth should be out there for this girls work..Sara......The promo ad makes Portman look like a jerk.........Real dancers know about line....Her head is too stiff while her arms are out and her head should be farther back and relaxed.....Come on...

[rotorhead1871]

01:31 AM on 03/26/2011

SHE CANT DANCE AS ADVERTISED.....IF SHE COULD, SHE WOULDN'T NEED A DOUBLE..

[Kevin Himmel]

12:44 AM on 03/26/2011

Crying over spilled milk. Move along people and get over it. Natalie has won the Oscar and she acted her butt off and she danced in the movie. Kudos to the young woman who did the fouettes. What else do you whimpering, whining, complaining people want? Balletjones who sang Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn starring. Was it Ms. Hepburn? No. Many singing roles by stars were done by individuals from opera companies for years and in many Academy Award winning musicals. It is nothing new. Please people, you are a real drag!.

[balletjones]

01:12 AM on 03/26/2011

No, and Natalie Wood didn't sing in West Side Story. But nobody lied and said they did their own singing.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:35 PM on 03/27/2011

marni nixon..............everyone knew that...

[mashedpotatoes]

10:51 PM on 04/02/2011

Nobody lied?! I don't understand this fictional version of Marni Nixon's story that is doing the rounds (in comments on this story on various sites). It took decades for Marni Nixon to get credit and recognition. She was very much deliberately kept a secret - the studios wanted audiences to believe the actresses were that good at singing. The Marni Nixon parallel to Sarah Lane's story is a fitting one, but as an example of the filmmakers/studio regressing to the worst of those times, NOT of things being better then than now.

[mheister]

12:40 AM on 03/26/2011

Natalie gave a great performance, dancing or no. I liked what Jennifer Lawrence did with Winter's Bone a bit better myself, and I'm looking forward to The Hunger Games (and really hoping the filmmakers don't give it the frakking Twilight treatment).

[littlebrowngirl]

12:13 AM on 03/26/2011

Natalie is a good not great actress. You can tell that she works hard and gives better than average performances. She seems like she is just playing dress up on every film so instead of acting she is pretending. Does she have a crying the whimpering clause in her contract? She does that in every film.

[balletjones]

10:05 PM on 03/25/2011

What is most disturbing is that Aronofsky, Fox, Natalie and now Millepied not only kept Sarah's dancing a secret but lied; they kept saying that Natalie did 90% of the dancing. As it turns out, it is true that if you repeat a lie often enough, people believe it. Many dancers knew the truth - that Sarah did Natalie's dancing - long ago (spring 2010), but few dancers spoke out and if they did, no one believed them. Of course, all the lying about Natalie doing her own dancing was done to garner hype for a small movie. Dancing was a major part of this movie and making Natalie seem super-human was to get attention for the movie and most importantly, make money for all those involved. This is blatant misrepresentation, for which I think Fox and the director should be sued. Natalie didn't deserve the Oscar and her price for future films shouldn't go up, given all her BS.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:32 PM on 03/27/2011

for sure...agreed....i walked out.....cant stand aronofsky.....the film was the worst..

[dwhuston]

08:13 PM on 03/25/2011

You mean Natalie isn't a ballerina? I'm almost as upset as I was when I found out she wasn't a princess :(

[mheister]

12:37 AM on 03/26/2011

I was just as upset when I found out I just didn't have the mitochlorians for it.

[balletjones]

05:36 PM on 03/25/2011

The only dancing in the movie WAS the fouettes, pique turns and the horribly choreographed cygnet variation (danced by PAB dancers). Awkwardly flapping your arms, photographed from the waist up (what Natalie did) did, is NOT DANCING! By my math, that means that Natalie did 0% of the dancing.

[littlebrowngirl]

12:03 AM on 03/26/2011

I have to agree with balletjones. If that was not portman's feet and legs then she really did not do any dancing. I never even thought about the fact that the majority of her close ups while moving are waist up. None of that would have been a big deal except she seemed to suggest that she did the dancing. Even if she did not do the dancing the routines were not at all good. If a pro was a double then the routines were really bad because they did not have the type of flow and polish I would expect. If this had come out before Oscar voting time she would not have won.

[Kevin Himmel]

12:54 AM on 03/26/2011

I detect a whole lot of jealousy in your comments. Negative emotions like envy and jealousy are just not becoming at all Balletjones. Put on your toe shoes and your tutu and give me 100 fouettes perfectly. And, when you do, you still won't win an Oscar.l

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

06:00 AM on 03/26/2011

It is not jealousy to point out that Natalie did not do the work implied. I could care less about ballet as I am not a dancer and never wanted to be. Natalie didn't do ANY fouettes? Why should anyone be jealous of that? Why should any one demonstrate their ability because you do not agree with them? You are being silly.

[Phyllis Weiss]

02:35 PM on 03/27/2011

right..........Ballet dancers and dancers in general are under rated for their very very difficult work and art form................They dance and train for years on end...........Actors? A joke to be sure.........Especially Portman....come on......they would die if they really had to dance for years on end....

[mokachyna]

09:48 AM on 03/25/2011

The dancing in this movie was just background...it was the story and acting that won Natalie the Oscar.

[mheister]

12:38 AM on 03/26/2011

The hypocrisy calls here have to do with selling Natalie as a dancer.

[Kevin Himmel]

12:54 AM on 03/26/2011

Amen and thank you.

[MiaisAwesome]

12:32 AM on 03/25/2011

Clearly, Portman won her Oscar for the last 30 minutes of that film, her (acting) performance was phenomenal! And seriously, why are we still debating about the dancing? Portman is not a professional dancer and she didn't win an award for her dancing skills so I have no idea where people are going with this.

[Xylem44]

05:41 PM on 03/25/2011

One of those background dancers doing interviews is the scorn lover of Benjamin Millipied... who got dumped when Benjamin hooked up with Natalie. A little green-eye stuff going on here...

[balletjones]

09:57 PM on 03/25/2011

Excuse me but no. Isabella Boyston, who has danced with ABT for several years and continues to now, was Ben's girlfriend when he met Natalie. The background dancers are all members of the Pennsylvania Ballet Company.

[scorpioman]

07:21 PM on 03/24/2011

what's even MORE OUTRAGEOUS, is that Jennifer Beals used a dance double in FLASHDANCE!

[Highball]

07:09 PM on 03/24/2011

Natalie's a prodigy on a lot of levels, and her dancing, her commitment to this role, psychologically and physically, is simply another example.

Lane doing the fouettes only makes sense. No matter how long or how hard Natalie trained, that would not only be difficult to pull off, but I seriously doubt whoever was insuring the film would have allowed her to try anyways. Simply put, there's no way they would have allowed their star to risk that sort of injury.

[sleekone]

07:15 PM on 03/24/2011

I agree. Ballerina's study for years to successfully pull of that type of move. My daughter who was considered a prodigy in ballet studied for years before being allowed to use point shoes; the foot must be ready for that type of workout in that type of shoe. It's not like learning to Salsa or line dancing, these moves are done on point shoes in addition to using every muscle in both the arms, torso and legs. She was stunning in this performance. I simply don't understand the dissing that's going on....I'm so tired of bullies who pick away at this and that in an effort to raise their own pathethic ego.

[Highball]

07:23 PM on 03/24/2011

Agreed, 100%. It's sort of sad, actually.

When you look at what Natalie did to her body, what she went through psychologically, what she did in training -- it's amazing. But she was very dedicated to the idea of the film, and to Aronofsky's vision. They had been discussing this for years and years.

[erinker]

08:45 PM on 03/25/2011

You should re-watch Wizard of Oz sometime. I am always shocked when the Lullabye League appears, and there is a girl who can't be more than 4 on point! My grandmother was a ballerina and they had her on point at a very early age. Amazing how things have changed over the years.

[mheister]

12:49 AM on 03/26/2011

Yeah, um, this piece is about the star and the filmmakers misleading Academy voters about Natalie's dancing.

[Sunnie7]

10:38 AM on 03/26/2011

Do you really believe the Academy voters, all in the entertainment business themselves, believed that Natalie did all the dancing? They know that movies are nothing but smoke and mirrors to create illusion for a flat screen. I doubt they were duped into their votes.