Your move, Natalie Portman.
Ballerina Sarah Lane, who was the Oscar-winning actress' dance double, maintains that she did the majority of Portman's dancing in Black Swan.
The American Ballet Theatre star alleges that after she spoke to Glamour about her part in the movie, she received a phone call from one of the film's producers, who ordered her to stay quiet.
"He asked if I would please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie's image," Lane told 20/20 on Friday.
"They were trying to create this image, this facade, really, that Natalie had done something extraordinary. Something that is pretty much impossible. . .to become a professional ballerina in a year and half," she continued. "Even with as hard as she worked, it takes so much more. It takes 22 years, it takes 30 years to become a ballerina."
Both the film's director, Darren Aronofsky, and the movie's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied (who is now Portman's fiance), have refuted Lane's accusations.
"I had my editor count. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane," Aronofsky told Entertainment Weekly. "If you do the math that's 80% Natalie Portman. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time, over 90% would be Natalie."
Echoed Millepied: "It was so believable, it was fantastic, that beautiful movement quality," he told the Los Angeles Times. "There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Lane] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettes, and one diagonal in the studio. Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie."
Portman's costar, Mila Kunis, also came to the actress' defense. "She did do every ounce of every one of her dances," Kunis, 27, told EW. "[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."
Portman — who is currently expecting her first child with Millepied — has chosen to take the high road during the dispute.
"I know what went on," the Harvard grad, 29, told E! News. "We had an amazing experience making the movie. I don't want to tarnish it by entering it into nastiness."
