Darren Aronofsky is not the master manipulator he thinks he is. In the Black Swan 15-year anniversary discussion for Vogue, the director reminisced with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis about how he tried — and failed — to do some Mean Girls pot-stirring shit. “I was trying to be a sneaky director and make them argue,” he said. Mila and Natalie both realized very quickly what I was doing and made fun of me, so it quickly became a joke that we all understood. They’re both very clever and were instantly privy to whatever trick I was playing.”
Aronofsky tried to do some enforced method acting by starting a feud between Portman and Kunis. But Portman and Kunis were already very good friends. In fact, Portman was the one who suggested Kunis for the role of up-and-coming ballerina Lily. “Darren made some comment early on, like, ‘Ya know, Nat, Mila’s dancing so well.’” Portman said. “And I was like, ‘Of course she is! She’s so fucking talented and I love her so much and I’m happy she’s doing a great job!’” Kunis recalled that the two actresses figured out Aronofsky’s ruse via text: ” Darren would tell me, ‘Nat is working really, really hard. She’s not even taking Saturdays and Sundays off.’ Then I would text Nat and she’d be like, ’…No, I’m not?’” The actors said they found it funny how bad of a job the director did trying to make them fight. So that’s nice.
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