Black Swan, the Academy Award-winningthrillerdirected byDarren Aronofskyand starringNatalie PortmanandMila Kunis, is turning 15 years in 2025, and we’re still unpacking the mind-bending thriller about a ballet dancer spiraling into madness. Aronofsky’s film remains as cryptic as ever, and more than a decade later, the director finds himself answering questions about it. One of them regards the classic rumor that he tried to create spite between Portman and Kunis because they were rivals in the film. As it turns out, this is one of those filmmaking rumors that has some truth to it.
The trio recently sat down withVoguein order to celebrate the legacy of the film. The five-time Academy Award-nominated release was a huge hit at the box office, grossing more than $329 million from a $13 million production budget. Although time has passed, Aronofksy and co-stars Portman and Kunis still seem to vividly remember the production, the things they learned, and some of the setbacks.Aronofsky was askedabout trying to “pit” the two actors against each other, and his answer was… curious.
Aronofsky admitted that he tried to generate some friction between the co-stars: “My take is that I was trying to be a sneaky director and make them argue. Mila and Natalie both realized very quickly what I was doing and made fun of me, so it quickly became a joke that we all understood. They’re both very clever and were instantly privy to whatever trick I was playing.”
Portman, on the other hand, said she was just proud of her friend realistically playing a good ballet dancer: “I remember being separated from Milaand that we weren’t in the same space a lot when we weren’t shooting. Darren made some comment early on, like, ‘Ya know, Nat, Mila’s dancing so well.’ And I was like, ‘Of course she is! She’s so f-ing talented, and I love her so much, and I’m happy she’s doing a great job!'”
Kunis agreed with Portman, and revealed that they knew the director was up to something with the strange gossiping: “Darren would tell me, ‘Nat is working really, really hard. She’s not even taking Saturdays and Sundays off.’ Then I would text Nat, and she’d be like, ‘No, I’m not?’ I think that’s how we figured out what Darren was up to, but it was all in good fun.”
Fifteen Years Later, Natalie Portman Reveals Which Scene Was the Hardest to Shoot
It’s Exactly the One You’re Thinking Of
There’s a strong argument for the belief thatBlack Swanremains Portman’s most ambitious performance to date. Not only did the actor have to go through extensive ballet training, but she played a complicated character with a shattered mindset. It would all work out in the end, withBlack Swanearning her an Oscar for Best Actress (a rare feat considering the film’s tinges of horror, a genre the Academy has rarely honored). It must have been a challenging production, although the actor’s selection for the most difficult scene wasn’tone of the ballet set pieces. It was the one where she had to get intimate with her friend:
“The only scene that was quite hard to shoot was when Mila and I hooked up. I learned that it’s fun to work with your friend until you have to film a sex scene with them. I remember Darren being like, ‘You guys only have to do it once, and you won’t have to do it again.’
“We were both standing in the room like [heavy, nervous breathing] until Darren yelled, ‘Action,’ and we just went for it. And he kept his word, we went for it, and we didn’t have to do any of it more than once. But that was definitely the one scene where I remember getting to set and thinking, ‘I don’t feel good about this.'”
Kunis, on the other hand, didn’t seem to remember much about doing the scene, and said she blocked it out of her memory: “To tell you the truth, I completely forgot about that scene[laughs]. I was just quickly thinking through the movie like, ‘Hmm, what was hard?’ I totally blocked that out.”
Black Swan
