Jennifer Lawrence has transformed herself into a mutant superhero in the “X-Men” movies, a middle-aged mop mogul in “Joy” and a bow-and-arrow-wielding…
Jennifer Lawrence has transformed herself into a mutant superhero in the “X-Men” movies, a middle-aged mop mogul in “Joy” and a bow-and-arrow-wielding badass in “The Hunger Games.” But with her latest flick, the espionage thriller “Red Sparrow,” the 27-year-old Oscar winner has taken on her most unlikely role yet: a Bolshoi ballerina.
“We joked a lot about [her clumsiness]” Kurt Froman, Lawrence’s dance coach, tells The Post. “I said, ‘Figures that the person who tripped up the stairs to get an Oscar has to play a ballerina.’”
But if anyone could teach the notoriously klutzy actress how to jeté and plié like a pro, it’s Froman. The former New York City Ballet dancer whipped Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis into shape for “Black Swan,” motivated a gang of adolescent boys to boogie like Baryshnikov for Broadway’s “Billy Elliot” and assured Christina Ricci she could navigate en pointe for the Amazon series “Z: The Beginning of Everything,” about flapper and erstwhile ballerina Zelda Fitzgerald. Rooney Mara hired him as a dance teacher for last year’s “Song to Song.”
“I feel like I’m an ambassador for the ballet on film,” says the 41-year-old Froman, who made his on-screen debut in the 2000 teen-dance drama “Center Stage.” “It gives me pleasure… to pass on the love and respect for the art form.”
“Red Sparrow” only has about six minutes of dancing. But those six minutes include a diabolically fast pas de deux, choreographed by New York City Ballet wunderkind Justin Peck and set to Igor Stravinsky’s frenetic score “The Firebird.”
“The character is buzzing around the stage doing this intricate pointe work and really fast turns, and it has to all look believable,” says Froman. Though Lawrence’s footwork would be swapped with that of Isabella Boylston, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, the actress — who had never taken a ballet class in her life — still had to be able to do all the moves for the visual effects to work.
Plus, Froman says, Lawrence “had to look like a ballet dancer throughout the entire movie. She still had to have that alignment of a ballet dancer even just walking down the street.”
The first thing Froman had to teach Lawrence was how to look like a dancer. “I watch how [my students are] walking, how they’re standing, how they’re carrying their arms,” he says. He had Lawrence stand in front of a mirror in the actress’ LA home, endlessly shrugging her shoulders and then pulling them down so that her back looked nice and long. He also taught her typical ballet barre exercises, such as deep-bended pliés, pointed tendus and fluid arm movements.
After four months of four-hour training sessions five days a week, Lawrence could convincingly fake being a prima ballerina. Froman was even there to cheer her on as she filmed the grueling dance scene, which took four days to shoot.
“It was really brutal,” Lawrence later told E! “I have so much respect for those athletes slash artists … but as soon as I wrapped the ballet scene, I threw my shoes in the trash.”
It’s not the first time ballet has driven one of Froman’s actors crazy. While former students Mara and Ricci have kept up with their ballet lessons, and Portman — who had taken dance before — ended up marrying Benjamin Millepied, the “Black Swan” choreographer, Froman says, “Mila [Kunis] was so ready to be done when ‘Black Swan’ was over with!”
