Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
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“Mila plays Lily as someone who has exactly what Nina wants. She is much freer, more alive and more<br />
sexual than Nina,” says Aronofsky. “Lily has the freedom to express herself and that becomes the source of<br />
both great allure and intense friction for Nina.”<br />
Kunis was instantly drawn to her wildly uninhibited character and to the intriguing idea of playing a<br />
dancer though the brutal reality knocked her for a serious loop. “I had this idea in the beginning of grandeur, of<br />
feeling graceful and wearing a tutu, but you have no idea how physically demanding it is until you do it,” Kunis<br />
says. “It really takes a toll on your body!”<br />
Nevertheless, she threw herself into training and into exploring the upending effects Lily has on Nina.<br />
“The key to Lily is that she had to be exactly the opposite of Nina, her mirror opposite, in every way,” says<br />
Kunis. “Even their dance styles are opposite. Nina is a very technical, beautiful dancer while Lily is more raw,<br />
free and spontaneous. Nina’s whole life is ballet but Lily eats hamburgers, parties, has sex, does drugs and<br />
explores everything. She’s the complete antithesis of Nina and embodies the <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Swan</strong>.”<br />
Taking on Lily as both the ultimate impulsive woman and an apparition was a tightrope act, one Kunis<br />
says she could not have done without Darren Aronofsky providing a safety net. “I wouldn’t have done this<br />
movie if not for Darren,” she confesses. “This character could be very iffy in the wrong hands. There isn’t a<br />
right way to play Lily. I didn’t read the script saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got this character figured out; I know exactly<br />
how to play her,’ because in every scene she’s different. But I trusted that in Darren’s hands it would work. I<br />
don’t know if I would’ve felt like that in the hands of any other director.”<br />
If Lily represents all that Nina wants to access within herself, then the company’s brilliant<br />
choreographer and artistic director, Thomas Leroy, is the man who pushes her without mercy to do just that.<br />
Playing Thomas is Cesar-winning French actor Vincent Cassel, who is lauded in Europe but has also worked in<br />
a range of Hollywood films such as OCEANS TWELVE, SHREK, ELIZABETH and EASTERN PROMISES.<br />
“Vincent is one of my favorite actors on the planet,” says Aronofsky. “I’m a big fan of his work in both<br />
his French and American films. Here he plays a Machiavellian character – the artistic director who is all about<br />
the art, and doesn’t care about the victims he leaves along the way. He was wonderful to work with in the role,<br />
in part because he moves so beautifully.”<br />
Cassel says the role was impossible to resist. “First of all there was Darren, who I always wanted to<br />
work with. Then, there was Natalie, who I’ve admired for years. After that, came the idea of making a thriller<br />
set in the ballet world, which is so attractive. The ingredients were cool. I knew it would be dark but very sexy.<br />
Then, I discovered Mila and soon Winona Ryder got involved, and I was going to be in the middle of all these<br />
women like a circus master. So, honestly, how could I say no?” he laughs.<br />
Yet, Cassel also knew Thomas would not be an easy man to inhabit especially in his willingness to push<br />
the dancers to their limit. “He’s not exactly a womanizer,” he explains. “I don’t think he’s really interested in<br />
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