Natalie Portman
Portman prepared for Black Swan by actually enduring some extremely taxing ballet exercises. At first, she was practicing for one or two hours a day, after a few months, she practiced for four hours at a time. When there were only a few months before the filming of the movie was slated, Portman was exercising for eight, and sometimes more, hours a day.
Move Move Move Your Feet
At 29 years of age, Portman shaved off 20 pounds to play Nina in Black Swan. Portman remembers that, in the heat of her training and extreme dieting, there were nights that she genuinely thought that she was going to die.