10 Actors Most Comfortable Playing The Grotesque

10. Natalie Portman

Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller, Black Swan, is a dark look into the world of obsession and perfectionism within ballet. Competing for a starring role in the eponymous ballet, Natalie Portman’s character, Nina Sayers, endures torment from other dancers and suffers abuse from the show’s director, Thomas Leroy, played by Vincent Cassel.

To truly indicate the level of perfectionism Nina is plagued by, Portman, who is slender in reality, is noticeably skinnier in this role. Throughout the film, the character doesn’t eat anything besides her fingernails (in a disturbing scene which would be enough to make a cat cringe), and her physical deterioration conveys to the audience that Nina’s hunger to be remembered as perfect surpasses that of her hunger to stay alive.

While Portman went on to discuss the lengths she went to in perfecting this role, it must be said that onscreen, Portman seemed at home in this whirlwind of a psychological drama. Black Swan was the movie which demonstrated that Natalie Portman is one of the greatest actors of all time, and led to her receiving an Oscar for Best Actress in 2011.