Former Penn student a 'Black Swan' co-producer

Despite transferring out of Penn by the end of his sophomore year, Jon Avnet is someone Penn would have loved to call an alumnus.

Having directed, written and produced 62 motion pictures, televisions movies and broadway plays, Avnet’s latest project, Black Swan — starring Natalie Portman — was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture.

Avnet entered the University as a Wharton School student in 1967 but transferred into the College of Arts and Sciences. After sophomore year, he left Penn to study film at Sarah Lawrence College.

“It was an ill-informed decision made with a great deal of passion and knowledge,” Avnet said.

But it was this passion that drove Avnet to the “ground floor” of the entertainment industry — driving around, getting coffee and diet Coke —while only earning $125 as an assistant producer.

It was this same passion that drove Avnet to start producing his own movies. “When you actually start to make movies, you get to live a life that is extremely privileged,” he said.

Avnet interviewed Nelson Mandela at the activist’s home in Soweto, South Africa just days after his release from prison for a TV miniseries Parting the Waters, which later won a Pulitzer Prize.

“I was in his house when the world was lined up outside waiting to talk to him,” Avnet said.

Avnet said he dedicated much money and effort to earning artistic control over his projects. He is also passionate about women’s stories — something that drove him to co-produce Black Swan.

The movie, in its portrayal of a young ballerina’s psychological deterioration, explores the “monomaniacal insecurities of women” in their pursuit for perfection in a competitive world, he said.

Some parallels might not be hard to find in an environment like Penn, Avnet said.

People in my world devote long, hard hours chasing the “mot-juste” at just the right moment, he said.

“If you can imagine cooking a meal, tasting it and doing it over and over again for a couple of years, it’s very difficult to maintain perspective,” he added.

Even so, Avnet describes his career as a rare “form of love and belief” that is hard to come by. “To make 62 movies and TV shows, it’s like 62 romances — full-blown multi-year romances,” he said.

Though Avnet himself never finished his Penn degree, all three of his children will have graduated from the University this May. His youngest daughter, College senior Lily Avnet, is majoring in English.

Avnet is an overseer for the School of Arts and Sciences and involved with projects at the Kelly Writers House.

While he is not sure how he would react if his children were to follow his footsteps and leave Penn early, Avnet is a firm believer that “you can do anything you want to.”

“But it won’t be handed to you,” he said. “It is there for the taking.”

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