Natalie Portman's Plunging Black Minidress Was a 'Black Swan' Throwback

Now that the actors' strike and the writers' strike are over, red carpets and big-ticket events are back on the schedule for A-listers like Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman. Last night, the star took to the red carpet at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for the premiere of her Netflix film, May December. And for the occasion, she wore a super-short, flouncy black Schiaparelli dress with a plunging neckline and a big, bold, spiky embellishment on one side.

It was a little goth, thanks to the inky black hue and spiky sequin bodice, and very much Black Swan ballerina with its tutu-inspired silhouette. The dress also incorporated a wide, cummerbund-style waistband. Portman finished the look with strappy heels and kept her accessories to a minimum.

While comparisons have been made between the film, which arrives on Netflix Dec. 1, and the real-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau, writer Samy Burch says that a biopic was never the goal.

“Certainly, that’s the seed of it, the big picture thing, but it was important to me that this wasn’t the Mary Kay Letourneau story,” Burch told The Hollywood Reporter. “It wasn’t the same details — I certainly don’t want anyone to assume that we’re trying to say all these conversations happened behind closed doors, it’s not. This was just a jumping-off point and a way that something like this made sense to me emotionally.”

Julianne Moore, who stars alongside Portman, echoed the sentiment, saying, “This is not the story of Mary Kay Letourneau."

Director Todd Haynes summed the film up and brushed off the comparisons, explaining that it was more about reflection than rehashing a scandal that happened more than two decades ago.

“It’s about the way that we look at ourselves as stories are told and we navigate and question our expectations and moral positions that we bring to the stories we watch," he said.