Natalie Portman On Black Swan Performance: I Know What Went On

Natalie Portman isn’t letting the harsh words of her Black Swan dance double’s claims that she only did a small portion of the dancing in her Oscar-winning performance get her down…

“I know what went on. And we had an amazing experience making the movie and I don’t want to tarnish it by entering into nastiness,” Portman says. “I’m really proud of everyone’s work in the movie and my experience. I’ll have that forever. So it’s nice for me to always know about that no matter what kind of nastiness or gossip is going around.”

For those who don’t have the down-low on the drama, last month American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane told Entertainment Weekly that Portman performed approximately 5 percent of the dance scenes in the film, while she did the rest. Lane added that the film’s producer, Ari Handel, asked her not to discuss her work with the press because the producers wanted to play up Portman’s training and dancing for her Oscar campaign.

Among Lane’s complaints is that the actress did not thank her in her Oscar acceptance speech, but Portman has now spoken out to say that she does not “remember my Oscar speech at all, and I’m actually too embarrassed to watch it.”

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky and co-star Mila Kunis have already come to Portman’s defense. Aronofsky said he determined that Portman did 80 percent of the dancing after going through all the dance shots in the film.

“[Portman] did do every ounce of every one of her dances,” Kunis said last month. “[Lane] wasn’t used for everything. It was more like a safety net. If Nat wasn’t able to do something, you’d have a safety net. The same thing that I had — I had a double as a safety net. We all did. No one ever denied it.”

This is looking more and more like a lost battle for Sarah Lane…but who would pick a battle with Natalie Portman anyways!?