A year before shooting Swan, Natalie Portman went through extreme ballat andcross training, shedding 20 pounds from her 5 foot 3 inch frame.
"I think it was just the physicality of it all that was the most extreme. I mean, I had never gotten that much training-- to be doing five to eight hour days of it was extreme." "I was eating much less than I usually do," she shurgs. "I was vegan while I was shooting the film, and I'm vegetarian now. It was cutting down portion size- and having frequent small meals."