\u201cBlack Swan\u201d returns to theaters on Aug. 21 and 24, playing in Imax for the first time to celebrate fifteen years since the psychological thriller first hit cinemas. Director Darren Aronofsky recently reunited with stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis to reflect on the film\u2019s milestone anniversary for Vogue<\/a>, and their discussion revealed that the director had tried and failed to stoke rivalry between the two stars to reflect their on-screen feud.<\/p>\n \u201cMy take is that I was trying to be a sneaky director and make them argue,\u201d admitted Aronofsky, \u201cMila 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\u2019re both very clever and were instantly privy to whatever trick I was playing.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Aronofsky\u2019s method was meant to help the actors get into character, as both play ballerinas in the film, competing for top billing in a prestigious production of \u201cSwan Lake.\u201d The on-screen contention between the two devolves into a fever dream of violence, deception and abuse\u2014 both mental and physical.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, however, Portman and Kunis were too professional and supportive of one another to give in to Aronofsky\u2019s tactics. \u201cI remember being separated from Mila and that we weren\u2019t in the same space a lot when we weren\u2019t shooting,\u201d Portman recalled, but when the director would try bating her with comments about Kunis\u2019 talent and commitment, she responded, \u201cShe\u2019s so fucking talented and I love her so much and I\u2019m happy she\u2019s doing a great job!\u201d<\/p>\n Kunis faced similar situations. She said, \u201cDarren would tell me, \u2018Nat is working really, really hard. She\u2019s not even taking Saturdays and Sundays off.\u2019 Then I would text Nat and she\u2019d be like, \u2018\u2026No, I\u2019m not?\u2019 I think that\u2019s how we figured out what Darren was up to, but it was all in good fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, both actors reflected fondly on their experience working with Aronofsky. \u201c\u2018Black Swan\u2019\u00a0was the first time I felt like I had a mind meld with a director, where each of us always knew exactly what to say. Every time we talked it felt like he gave me a little key that unlocked a scene for me,\u201d said Portman. Kunis added that when journalists would ask her about Aronofsky\u2019s intensity on set, she\u2019d respond, \u201c\u2018He\u2019s actually a really kind, lovely guy who took us to see \u2018Twilight\u2019\u00a0one time because we had the day off.\u2019 And journalists were always so disappointed that he wasn\u2019t some tortured soul who treated us like garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n Their collaboration paid off, as \u201cBlack Swan\u201d earned $329.4 million at the worldwide box office. Portman took home her first Academy Award for her performance and the film garnered four additional nominations\u2014 including best picture and best director for Aronofsky.<\/p>\n Portman summed it up well when reflecting on her first time watching the film, calling it \u201cshocking and exhilarating in a really wonderful way.\u201d Audiences will be able to relive that shock and wonder in Imax next weekend, and Aronofsky\u2019s next film, \u201cCaught Stealing,\u201d will hit theaters Aug. 29.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cBlack Swan\u201d returns to theaters on Aug. 21 and 24, playing in Imax for the first time to celebrate fifteen years since the psychological thriller first hit cinemas. Director Darren Aronofsky recently reunited with stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis to reflect on the film\u2019s milestone anniversary for Vogue, and their discussion revealed that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1965796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[328256,334852,347097,330682],"class_list":["post-1965795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-darren-aronofsky","tag-mila-kunis","tag-natalie-portman","tag-psychological-thriller"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018Was-All-in-Good-Fun.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1965796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}