By Charles Thomson
October 24, 2010, (Sawf News) - Vincent Cassel revealed at the London Film Festival October 22 that he based his character in new movie 'Black Swan' on famed theatre director Michael Bennett, who was a family friend during Cassel's early years.
Cassel plays a director called Thomas Leroy in 'Black Swan', a thriller set in a ballet company.
Speaking at a London Film Festival press conference, Cassel said, "When I was much younger I had the opportunity to be really close to a man called Michael Bennett, who was the director of 'Chorus Line', 'Dreamgirls', 'Ballroom' – you know, he was actually one of the biggest Broadway directors ever.
"He was a good friend of the family when I was younger and my father actually played in one of his plays, 'Chorus Line', in London. So I've seen him work with the dancers and he was really close to what I'm doing in the movie. Meaning that he was a real jerk with dancers – but it was only to get them where he wanted them to go.
"But he was gay and that's a pretty big difference because my character is not gay at all and he's actually using his sexuality to direct his dancers, so it was a different take. But it's very much about this guy."