Benjamin

Toto20 found a couple really great interviews with Benjamin, and you can read both in their entirety over here. Just excuse the translation.

Below are what I think are the key quotes. Starting with the news that Benjamin is going to be working in LA next year.

To get Hollywood closer to you?
At first, yes. Then it turns out that I have a great project that will keep me all year long there next year. I am funded by the LA Music Center as an artist in residence. I am hiring dancers for a very American program: a piece by Merce Cunningham, a ballet by William Forsythe, Quintett, which I am going to dance, and a room where I am going to collaborate with the New York painter Christopher Wool.

You plan to turn your new girlfriend Natalie Portman?
Black Swan The experience was unbelievable. If one day there is an idea, a desire that is, why not? But, honestly, we do not chase.

How is it to work with the one that you love?
The filming of Black Swan, was the beginning of our relationship, it was brilliant. We danced together. I carried her, it was great. It was Dirty Dancing!

How do you cope with the fact of entering the club of one of the most glamorous couples of the world?
Pfff… Frankly, I live life every day with her so super simple. It protects a lot of this shit of tabloids. Especially since we have a child.

How did Natalie entice you?
It’s simple, I fell in love right away. [opened his eyes wide to mimic his first look.] It was as in a film. It was irresistible, it was impossible not to succumb. We met around Darren Aronofsky. He came into the studio, I was working with a dancer. He wanted to see if it would stick between Natalie and me. And it worked well ‘Match’. [Laughs.]

Are you a different man since you father?
It’s a huge change. This is a new stage in my life. I love it.

Not too much to burst?
No. Fatherhood gives me strength and will to live.

With all these trips, how do you live normally with a baby?
It’s a bohemian life at the moment, but when he goes to school, it will be necessary to settle. But what Natalie and I want is really to be together at all times, as a family.

You had hoped to dedicate yourself entirely to your role as father. Have you achieved this feat?
Yes, I do not want to miss anything. Presence counts for a lot to me. I’m always with him.

You want to see your child become a dancer?
I want him to try many things. He will choose.

His son, born June 14 last year, called Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Where does this name?
Aleph is the result of a long family research! We wanted an original name, but easy to carry, he asked me and Natalie. Shortly after I found myself in a book and it seemed like a natural choice.


And finally, a description of this prize giving event last month.

In the private room of the very hotel Royal Monceau in Paris, where he has just been pinned on the breast the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, the star of New York City Ballet turns to his partner and improvise a statement love, “Natalie, you and our son have made me immensely happy Aleph and I have made it possible to achieve success.”

With a slight movement, which sways her dress in silk crepe (revealing a recent physical on which the pregnancy has not left traces), Natalie Portman, 30, grabs his face in his hands and eyes full of tears gives him a kiss ending under the eyes of friends and family. Even the waiters, who serve champagne to 40, are moved.