Toronto Notebook: Natalie Portman Flick "F--king Great" (or So Says the Director)

Round-up of Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival

Of the 300-plus films the Toronto Film Fest, none has more love-it-or-love-it-more buzz than Black Swan. Natalie Portman stars as a troubled New York ballerina, and director Darren Aronofsky's last film here was The Wrestler—so hopes are high.

At the film's press conference yesterday, Aronofsky fueled the hype by offering one thing people should know about Black Swan before seeing it: "That it's f--king great."

On a more level-headed note, Portman admitted she's cool with all the Oscar talk:

"It's very complimentary and flattering that people are talking about that," she said, "but obviously what we do is about wanting to make things that people connect to—and that's the biggest prize."

Of course, Portman may still be in a state of shock that Black Swan got made at all. She first met to talk about the film with Aronofsky in 2002—when she was still in college.

"What he told me in that first meeting is what the movie ended up being; it wasn't written yet, but all the themes were there and the plot points were there and the whole environment. So to have that sitting in the back of your mind for eight years is a great help. It just all exists in your brain. You've been living with it for a long time and processing it even when you're not aware of it."

Portman's mind had some warning. Her body, not so much.

She does extraordinary dance work in the film, but, as Aronofsky explained, delays in financing that pushed the start date back meant Portman had to keep in ballet-ready shape much longer than she wanted to.

"Because the money never really came through for a really long time, we kept having to push [production back]," he told reporters. "And one thing I didn't realize until recently is that every time we'd push, Natalie was like, 'Another three weeks of carrot sticks and almonds? I'm gonna kill you!'"

All that hard work seems to have paid off, though. Portman explained how she feels like Black Swan's portrait of the pressures and pleasures of art and stardom—both physical and mental—are entirely familiar to her.

"As an artist and as a human being, you have to see the world through your own eyes. And so that struggle—I mean, 'struggle' is a strong word—you have to fight against seeing yourself from without a lot. The borders around your identity get fuzzy. That's what this movie is also about, when you start seeing yourself everywhere. I think that's what the character goes through."

Of course, highfalutin' talk aside, one of the more buzzed-about moments in Black Swan comes as Portman's demented dancer has a passionate drug-fueled spin around the sheets with another ballerina, played by Mila Kunis.

Aronofsky mocked his own film's erotic excess by noting how it's a hell of a marketing tool:

"How do you make an independent film that makes people curious and want to come to it?" Aronofsky smiled. "Just get a couple of girls kissing and it's all set."

Portman, further down the table, laughed, and said: "I feel so used."