Showing posts with label Black Swan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Swan. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2011

And the 2011 Oscars Go To...

The King's Speech ruled over the 2011 Academy Awards on Sunday, taking home four honors including Best Picture and Best Actor for the movie's star, Colin Firth.

The royal drama, about stuttering British monarch George VI, led the competition with 12 nominations going into this year's Oscars, and edged out the likes of Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception and The Social Network to claim the most coveted title of the night.

Firth was crowned Best Actor in a Leading Role, emerging triumphant over Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and James Franco (127 Hours).

Filmmaker Tom Hooper also basked in Oscar glory as he was hailed Best Director, beating Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David O. Russell (The Fighter), David Fincher (The Social Network) and Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit).

Pregnant Natalie Portman fought back tears as she walked away with Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of a tormented ballet dancer in Black Swan, ahead of Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) and Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine).

She gave special thanks to her Black Swan choreographer and fiance Benjamin Millepied, telling the audience, "So many people helped me prepare for this role... my beautiful love, Benjamin Millepied who choreographed the film and has now given me the most important role of my life."

It was also a golden night for The Fighter, about tough Boston, Massachusetts boxing legends Mickey Ward and Dickie Eklund, as Christian Bale and Melissa Leo dominated the Best Supporting categories.

Meanwhile, moviemaker Francis Ford Coppola, actor Eli Wallach and historian Kevin Brownlow were given a standing ovation in recognition of the lifetime achievement honors they received at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards in November. Fellow honoree Jean-Luc Godard did not attend the ceremony.

Oscars co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco opened the 2011 Academy Awards with a hilarious spoof poking fun at the Best Picture nominees, while 2010 presenter Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman also made surprise appearances in the skit.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, Randy Newman, and Florence Welch and A.R. Rahman provided the music for the night as they performed the tracks nominated for Best Original Song.

And Celine Dion took to the Kodak Theatre stage in Los Angeles to sing Smile during the ceremony's annual In Memorium segment, remembering the stars lost in the past 12 months, including Tony Curtis, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, Pete Postlethwaite and Gloria Stuart.

The complete list of winners at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards is as follows:

Best Picture: The King's Speech
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Best Screenplay - Adapted: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Screenplay - Original: David Seidler, The King's Speech
Best Foreign Language Film: In a Better World (Denmark)
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Documentary (Feature): Inside Job
Best Art Direction: Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara, Alice In Wonderland
Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, Inception
Best Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick, Inception
Best Sound Editing: Richard King, Inception
Best Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network
Best Original Song: We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Randy Newman
Best Costume: Colleen Atwood, Alice in Wonderland
Best Documentary (Short Subject): Strangers No More
Best Film Editing: The Social Network
Best Make-up: The Wolfman
Best Animated Short Film: The Lost Thing
Best Live Action Short Film: God of Love
Best Visual Effects: Inception

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."