Darren Aronofsky Tried (& Failed) To Start a Feud on the ‘Black Swan’ Set

Directors pull all kinds of weird stunts to capture the perfect performance even if, in the case of Darren Aronofsky on Black Swan, they fail. That’s not to say that the film or any element of it was a failure by any means, just that Aronofsky’s methods in this particular instance reportedly weren’t as effective as he had hoped. According to the Los Angeles Times, Aronofsky attempted to manipulate his two leads, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, into a rivalry with one another to manifest a stronger aura of envy and resentment between the two. Why didn’t it work, you ask? Well, it turns out the actors are such good friends that the rumors he tried to spread didn’t take!

To be fair to Aronofsky, his intentions for why he attempted to stir the pot between Portman and Kunis make sense within the context of the film. Black Swan is a film that ponders the price of perfection as Portman’s Nina Sayers pushes her body beyond her limits to star in the double role of the Swan in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, one of the most difficult roles that the ballet world has ever conceived. The pressure she places on herself is enough to cause her to crack, only becoming exacerbated when the company is joined by Lily (Kunis), whom Nina becomes increasingly paranoid over for fear that she might replace her. It’s at once a riveting portrayal of an artist’s willingness to push themselves to extremes and a surprisingly realistic portrayal of mental illness but to strike the chord that it did, Nina and Lily would have to hate each other on camera despite their real-life friendship. This is where being an actor comes in handy.

How Did Darren Aronofsky Try To Start a Rivalry Between Mila Kunis & Natalie Portman?

It’s all very high school in a move worthy of Regina George herself, but Aronofsky seemingly didn’t want to rely solely on the actors’ talent to capture what he eventually would on-screen. To be fair, this is a director known for his extremities, the same one who, in a director’s commentary for his debut feature Pi, claimed that his actor Sean Gullette stuck a drill through his head to capture that final shot. One can only hope he was being hyperbolic, as we all know a union or two who would have something to say about the situation, however on Black Swan, the damage he intended to do was purely psychological.

Presumably, seeking the kind of off-screen rivalry that made What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? such a smash hit, Aronofsky would reportedly approach Portman on her break to tell her that “Mila is doing really well on her stuff. She’s so much better than you.” According to Portman, “Darren would tell us things about each other to try to make us jealous. I think he was trying to create a rivalry in real life between us.” Aronofsky denies fanning the flames of their relationship, but regardless, his methods didn’t seem to take, and that’s because…

Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis Are Great Friends in Real Life

Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis were just too close to one another for any of Aronofsky’s meddling to take. According to Kunis, “we were really great friends before production. We are really great friends now.” Perhaps their chemistry on screen has more to do with their suppressed friendship rather than their faux rivalry, but at the end of the day, each actor knew that they were just doing a job. Ironically, in a film about the perils of throwing too much of yourself away for the sake of your art, Portman and Kunis took the message to heart and didn’t allow for the dissolution of their friendship.

In fact, according to the source, it was Portman who recommended Kunis in the first place due to her dancing experience! Portman herself, having been in the business since she was a child, has gone on to do several roles about the perils of performance, so it’s good to see that she’s living by what she preaches. The two would often watch Top Chef together and visit the Rose Bowl Flea Market in LA. Celebrities… They’re just like us, after all!

Darren Aronofsky May Not Have Ignited a Feud, But He Did Keep Them Apart

In a move that’s much more understandable than wrecking their friendship, Darren Aronofsky did keep both actors apart for the duration of the 42-day shoot so that they couldn’t collaborate on any scenes together. “I knew it might be really hard to keep them apart because they’re friends, but I just didn’t want them to know each other’s motives. I didn’t want them to compare notes. I wanted them to come from different places,” the director stated. It’s a common technique for directors to keep their actors apart to discourage any kind of imitation and in the case of Black Swan, these two absolutely had to come from different places. Lily is, after all, everything Nina desires to be, and the manifestation of the Black Swan herself. Without that sharp point of contrast between the two, there’s no rivalry. No rivalry, no movie!

Things got awkward when they filmed their much-discussed sex scene, which at the time became a bit of a media sensation. To be fair, this is probably where it would have helped if they didn’t know each other, as it was long before intimacy coordinators thankfully became a standard practice in the industry. At the very least, while it shouldn’t overshadow the painstaking ballet work that both actors performed (training that saw both actors sustain mild injuries throughout the production), this sex scene crucially spoke to Nina’s obsession with Lily, proving its significance.

Aronofsky may have overstepped in trying to ignite a feud between his two leads, but at least professionalism was maintained, and no relationships were destroyed as a result. With the colossal amount of talent and ego frequently found on Hollywood movie sets, feuds between cast and crew members alike are a dime a dozen. Let’s just be thankful that we’re not getting Feud: Natalie and Mila any time soon.

Black Swan is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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