Mila Kunis prepared for her role in Black Swan (2010), she starved herself and went through great dance training. In a recent interview with regard to the iconic film’s 15th anniversary, Kunis shared the physical and emotional toll of the character, Lily, and permitted us an inspired glance into the actions that enabled her to give such an acclaimed performance.
Kunis also revealed that her preparation workload meant “very little eating, ” only drank broth and 1200 calories and less diet, dropping under 500 calories when filming was nearing closing.
“I know you’re not supposed to say it, but that’s the truth,” she told Vogue, her point driven home by the fact that it would be really hard to achieve that toppled weight. Besides that extreme approach, smoking as an appetite suppressor brought much more concern that such extreme measures were normalised.
Her frankness throws light on the not-so-often talked demands of Hollywood when it comes to physical transformation, starting dialogues on healthier choices for role preparation. And of her weight loss, Kunis is said to have weighed under 95 pounds, miles away from her normal frame, indicating the collateral damage of her determination.
To become Lily, Kunis trained 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for six months under the training of Mary Helen Bowers, ex-New York City Ballet dancer. “My prep was a lot of dancing,” Lily shared. The harsh training led Kunis to suffer several really bad injuries, and she actually dislocated her shoulder. “We would shoot those dancing scenes for hours, and I had bruises all over my ribs just from being lifted over and over again,” the actress added.
“I thought I was completely screwed,” was how Kunis reacted, but with acupuncture, she found relief. Her training was initially set for three months but got stretched because of delays in funding and this provided her and her co-star Natalie Portman extra time to hone their ballet skills. That commitment brought Kunis a Golden Globe nomination to show that she could step outside comedy.
The casting of Kunis stemmed from a chance conversation with Portman while at a flea market with Portman inflating Kunis’ ballet experience to Darren Aronofsky. These two would ensure that the attempts of Aronofsky to create a fake rivalry would only turn into a running joke.
This connection added the extra dimension to their performances, to further cement Black Swan as a cultural phenomenon that will be celebrated in IMAX for the last time on August 21 and 24, 2025.
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