In a recent roundtable interview, actress Natalie Portman revealed the method behind the melodramatic madness that subsumes “Black Swan.” It began with her workout routine. At the height of her training with New York City Ballet dancer Mary Helen Bowers, Portman was in toe-shoes five hours a day plus swimming a mile each morning. She was also on a strict diet; for months, she ate only carrots and almonds.
Such is the life of a dancer, she told journalist Amy Longsdorf: “You don’t drink. You don’t go out with friends. You don’t have much food. You are constantly putting your body through extreme pain.”
“I came to understand the self-flagellation of a ballet dancer.” The rigors of Portman’s physical training clearly helped her descend into the abysmal depths of her character. There is a malevolent desperation to Nina’s madness, as the deprivations of her body mirror her inner-emptiness. Because she lacks both physical and emotional sustenance, she crumbles under the pressure.
You kind of want to grab Nina by the tutu and drag her to the nearest rabbi’s office. A little inner-dimension, please. But on the contrary, Portman said she modeled her character’s nature on examples of religious compulsion, and argued, perhaps rightly, that some religious impulses promote – or even require – obsessive behavior.
