The Black Swan Scene Mila Kunis Hated Filming

The 2010 psychological horror drama, "Black Swan," is bound to linger in moviegoers' minds thanks to its trippy story and stunning cinematography. Directed by Darren Aronofsky — with a screenplay by Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin, and Andres Heinz — "Black Swan" follows professional ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), as she vies for the leading role in her company's production of "Swan Lake" — if she gets it, she'll have to portray both the darkly sensual Black Swan and the innocent White Swan. As Nina works herself harder and harder, she sinks into madness, absolutely consumed by her ambition.

"Black Swan" was praised up and down the board and received five Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actress win for Portman. Marie Claire wrote of the film, "By the end, Nina's quest for perfection — and Portman's blazing performance — will leave you breathless"

The film also finds strong performances from its supporting cast, which includes Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, and Mila Kunis as Nina's main rival, Lily. While Kunis' supporting performance is undeniably brilliant, she has admitted that there's one scene of the film that she just hated filming. 

As "Black Swan" progresses to its harrowing ending, Nina descends into an unstable state, becoming more and more unsure of what is or isn't reality. At one point, she and Lily have sex after a night out drinking together. When Nina confronts Lily about it, Lily denies it happened, and Nina is left uncertain whether it was a hallucination or not. Despite the love scene being a pivotal moment of the plot, Kunis didn't enjoy filming it so much.

Although Kunis and Portman both felt that "Black Swan" was transformative for them as actors, Kunis told Parade of the film's love scene, "I don't think we were laughing between takes. I think we were like, 'Let's just get this over with.' It's uncomfortable doing a sex scene. It's just bizarre. Luckily, we were friends, so we were able to get through it." Portman echoed these sentiments while talking to MTV News, stating, "It was pretty awkward. I almost feel like it would be easier to do it with someone you didn't know. But, having said that, it was great to have a friend there."

While admitting her discomfort, Kunis also addressed the ways in which the scene plays an essential part in the film's plot — despite it being a scene that she knows attracted a lot of (at times misconstrued) attention on its own for its general risque nature. She told Parade, "We were just hoping that people would walk away after seeing the movie not just isolating in their memory that scene when we have sex. ... It wasn't done for shock value, but we weren't looking forward to it."