Darren Aronofsky is let down that Mila Kunis didn’t earn a best supporting actress nomination for Black Swan.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter after he nabbed a best director nom, Aronofky says he’s “bummed” Kunis — and castmembers Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder and Vincent Cassel — were overlooked by the Academy.
But he calls Natalie Portman‘s best actress nom, one of five for the film, “fantastic.”
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Aronofsky avoided the television while the nominees were being announced, instead opting to build a Lego jail cell for Darth Vader with his son in his New York City apartment.
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“I was superstitious,” he said. “I knew it was this morning and I tried to ignore it and block it out.”
The filmmaker didn’t have time to celebrate or take in the meaning of the nominations as he and his son are leaving for Florida to surprise the his mom on her 70th birthday.
“She was the first person to call me and I’m sure she is going to be delighted to show me off to all of her friends in Florida. So maybe that’s when it’ll sink in,” he said.
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Aronofky says he’s amazed that the indie film has entered the main stream (witness the Jim Carrey skit on Saturday Night Live).
“Someone just sent me photograph of a woman dressed as a black swan standing next to man dressed as Charlie Chaplin in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. And I think tourists are paying a buck to take a picture of the Black Swan, and to
me it’s just mind blowing,” he told THR. “We never thought that we were making images that people would be recreating and reproducing in makeup and costume.”
