I don’t disagree with that.
It is time that dancers got their due. It is not often they are in movies anyway. They spend their life, even their early years to gain the mastery necessary to even be able to do what they do.
I wonder if Sarah Lane was told that they would be putting the face of the actress over her own? She doesn’t say, but I wonder if she is speaking out now, if she was led to believe it wouldn’t be a complete rip off of her skills.
It’s disconcerting because before, actors and actressses used to do quite a bit, dancing, singing, acrobatics, some good stunts, and other such things. Now they just show up and look pretty and someone else does the work, with their faces offscreen. If someone is getting paid ten to twenty million dollars, they better be putting in ten to twenty million dollars worth of work and talent into their work and performance. If, say, Natalie had been paid and confirmed for a movie that would begin production in a year, she would have enough time, wiht her vaunted dance background, to get some genuine ballet moves in and do them well enough so that a double would only be used in a minimal way, not for nearly everything. If the paid double is doing the bulk of the dancing, the dancer should get half the check and a prominent mention in interviews and the trailer and be credited for it near the top of the credits and prominently displayed.
Lana spent a bulk of her life mastering the technique and Natalie only really posed. No one deserves that big of a paycheck for just posing and for the money studios invest in their entertainers, these people have no business not putting in the BEST POSSIBLE performance and they should be paid according to their skills, not looks. If Portman doesn’t haev the skill of a dancer, she should get paid accordingly and the bulk should go to the double.