Portman's body double speaks out

She dropped weight for the role and underwent months of ballet training before filming even began, but just how much of the actual dancing in Black Swan did Natalie Portman do?

According to her body double, not as much as people have been led to believe.

American Ballet Theatre dancer Sarah Lane has spoken out about the credit being given to Portman for her dancing in the film.

Lane alleges that she performed many of the complicated dance sequences and that Portman's face was digitally added to her body afterwards.

The film's producers wanted to create the impression Portman was "some kind of prodigy" as the foundation for her Oscars campaign, she claims.

“Of the full body shots, I would say 5 per cent are Natalie,” Lane told Entertainment Weekly.

"All the other shots are me."

Lane made these comments just days after the film's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied told a newspaper 85 per cent of the dancing in the film was done by Portman.

Portman and Millepied are now engaged and expecting their first child together.

"There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Lane] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio," he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Portman has not responded to Lane's remarks but has spoken in the past about having a body double for some of the complicated sequences.

However Fox Searchlight, the studio behind the film, released a statement denying Lane's claims: “We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film.”

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lane says she's not after fame, or to denigrate Portman. She just wants to be credited properly for her contribution.

"I do want people to know that you cannot absolutely become a professional ballet dancer in a year and a half no matter how hard you work," she says. "I've been doing this for 22 years."