Natalie Portman praises Aronofsky

The 29-year-old – who received the best actress Golden Globe for the part - has created such excitement that she has been talked of receiving a possible Oscar nomination for her role, an honour that the actress fully attributes to Darren.

Natalie says the director was able to extract more from her as an actress than anyone has previously.

“He gave me one of the greatest gifts that any director’s ever given me which was – after we’d try everything that he wanted to do he’d give me ten ways to attack a scene, then he’d say, ‘Now do this one for yourself.’ A lot of directors say, ‘OK, this one’s a freebie,’ but to just put it in those words gave me such a different understanding, both for myself and also for the character, that artistry has to do with pleasing yourself not with pleasing someone else and that Nina’s key to becoming an artist is finding pleasure herself. It’s just stepping out of that whole world of being a child and becoming a woman and an artist,” she told Cover Media.

Black Swan was released in the UK on January 21.