Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Natalie Portman: People Are Shocked by My Lesbian Sex Scene

At the very least, Natalie Portman should receive her second Oscar nomination for her portrayal of tormented ballerina Nina Sayers in 'Black Swan' -- but it's not just her stellar performance that have caused people to take notice of the film.

Unless you live underground, you've heard about the sex scene she shares with co-star Mila Kunis in 'Swan.'

"Lesbian scenes, sex scenes, they're all over the place!" she tells Vogue in the latest issue. "But because it's me, people are shocked. I see the value of a good girl persona-it's so easy to subvert it!"

Portman also dishes about her intense training schedule for the movie, being a woman in Hollywood and her diet.

"I like pleasure, I like joy. I'd never get to the point where I would starve or injure myself like Nina does. I'm the opposite-when I'm hungry, I eat, and I always make sure I'm eating something delicious. I'm tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to live up to, but that's also part of my pleasure: knowing you are being your fullest self. Being your fullest self is a lot of work."


She did ballet until she was 13, but needed intense training for 'Black Swan': "Two hours a day after school, five hours on Saturdays. When I started acting, I knew I'd have to downgrade to twice a week and would no longer be in the best class, so I stopped. The dance training for 'Black Swan' started a year before the film, with two hours a day. Six months later we ramped it up to five hours a day, and the last two months it was eight hours a day, because we added choreography and cross training, so I was also swimming a mile a day. The discipline was good for the part-it hurt a lot; your body is in constant pain."

Her diet: "I swear, I eat. I ate a bagel an hour ago. I consume my own weight in hummus every day. I cook a lot, and I even do vegan baking."

Women as objects: "There's a difference between being in a bra and underpants as an object on a men's magazine cover and playing yourself-a woman with desires and needs who loves and laughs with her friends-in a bra and underpants. You become an object if you simply put it out there. Most movies are made by men, it's totally natural that they're going to present their worldview, so we're trying to find more women who are writers and directors who are expressing their worldview."

Reading reviews of her work: "I try not to read reviews or anything about me. It's totally natural to be interested, but it's completely damaging. Over the almost 20 years I've been working, I've been up, I've been down, I've been in, I've been out. Just getting to do the work is the privilege. I always feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. The one thing you have control over is having a great experience by doing your work fully."

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