She also told The Hollywood Reporter, "Fans of the original won't want another one to be made -- and honestly, one has to just cope with that. The central relationship between Eliza and Higgins is a fascinating one: Do we have a man who is fantastically dysfunctional and hasn't been able to create a relationship with any woman except this one? Or is it, as I suspect, that she, actually, is the one who turns around and creates him, in the sense that she excavates in him an emotional center?""I find it chocolate-boxy, clunky and deeply theatrical," she begins. "I don't think that it's a film. It's this theater piece put onto film. It was Cecil Beaton's designs and Rex Harrison that gave it its extraordinary quality. I don't do Audrey Hepburn. I think that she's a guy thing. I'm sure she was this charming lady, but I didn't think she was a very good actress. It's high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted, because it's a very fantastic part for a woman."
... Can we expect more songs -- new songs -- in the revise?
"No, God almighty," Thompson snaps back. "It's so-o-o-o long. It's incredibly long. The audience can expect less songs!"
Monday, August 9, 2010
LOOK AT HER, A PRISONER OF THE GUTTER: Academy Award-winning screenwriter Emma Thompson has much to say about the My Fair Lady remake starring Carey Mulligan which she has penned, calling it a story about sexual slavery and "a very serious story about the usage of women at a particular time in our history. And it's still going on today." On the original film, which did win for Best Picture:
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It takes a profound lack of perspective to call Audrey Hepburn "a guy thing."
ReplyDeleteComment reveals much more about Thompson than about Hepburn...
ReplyDeleteYES YES YES! The original was about 45 minutes too long and this just makes me happy as hell, especially for seeing a screenwriter realize how miscast Audrey was in the damn movie. It is a guy thing to love Audrey in this part, seeing as adorable as she is, but she had no spark and spunk as Eliza and is nowhere close to touch in things like Roman Holiday. So yeah, I'm on team Thompson here.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a huge Julie Andrews fan, and will complain about the original's casting at least once a year. Still one of the more entertaining Best Actress races, at least in retrospect, where Andrews wins as Mary Poppins over Hepburn in the role Andrews made famous.
ReplyDeleteI'll defer to others' opinions about the casting, but I'm still not buying "guy thing."
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am an Emma Thompson apologist but I think what she is referencing is the Audrey Hepburn of Breakfast at Tiffany's. That character is the original Manic Pixie Dream-girl and has achieved undeserved iconic status for both men and women. So much so that when you think Audrey Hepburn you think of her winsome face reflected through the Tiffany's glass. In that light Thompson's distaste for Hepburn the actress becomes more understandable.
ReplyDeleteOn further reflection is there any role that Hepburn hasn't done where she is more than a creation or extension of of one man's perception of her? For example, Roman Holiday (journalist observes a princess on holiday), My Fair Lady (professor creates lady) and Funny Girl (photographer creates fashion model).
Mulligan doesn't seem different enough from Hepburn to satisfy Thompson's wishes. Wonder if talking about Hepburn before production has begun is a way of making sure that whomever directs steers clear of getting a Hepburn-esque performance out of Mulligan.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in reading about the original production of Pygmalion, the actress who first played Doolittle was 48 years old, so given that Thompson is 51, maybe she should take on Eliza her own bad self.
Charade, maybe? You could also maybe make the argument for Sabrina- although a wealthy older man furnishes her new wardrobe and cultural education, one could say that the city of Paris itself contributed to her growth more than anything else. But then there's the chicken-egg issue of why she changed at all (for herself, or for love?), so maybe that's a bad example after all.
ReplyDeleteI adore Hepburn for Sabrina and Roman Holiday and Charade. I never loved Tiffany's nor did I love her casting as Doolittle, but I think it's a pretty thankless roll for most women without a reinterpretation. Interestingly, my grandparents saw Andrews on Broadway and didn't particularly like her...she was too "pretty" to do the cockney right.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the epilogue to the original Pygmalion, GB Shaw made it clear that Eliza marries Freddy & not Higgins after the play is over because, as an attractive young women, Eliza does not feel pressure to marry someone and, though Higgins could support her, he is domineering and insensitive. Higgins is not likely be interested in marrying Eliza because his standards are too high and he's not interested in sex. In the epilogue she marries Freedy and eventually starts a family and a flower shop with him, all the while continuing her love/hate relationship with Higgins.
Mulligan may have a physical resemblance to Hepburn, but she's got more depth, I think. Based on An Education, which has got an older-man-remaking-young-girl theme, she's got more ability to show that she's been deeply hurt, more fight in her to really lash out, more ability to be complicit in her remaking. (And I like Hepburn and like the original film, while seeing its flaws and looking forward to the remake.)
ReplyDelete