I just read that Vivien Leigh was offered the lead role of Violet first and was supposed to do the film but backed out to do a play instead. I think Vivien Leigh was one of the finest actresses ever - but wouldn't this have been an interesting/different portrayal with her in the role?
Lawrence
I agree, I think Vivien would have given Violet a very different "spin", but it certainly would be interesting
Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.
[deleted]
It was the theatre, rather than her illness, what kept Vivien Leigh from making more films. No other movie star of her class (I'm thinking of Katharine Hepburn, Olivia De Havilland, Joan Crawford and Bette Davies) devoted so much time to the stage. Hepburn was awesome here, and more powerful than ever, but it would've been fantastic if the great Vivien Leigh had been able to play this role, given the small number of films that she made after GWTW.
shareVivien Leigh is one of those actresses that could do no wrong and was exceptional in all her films. It would've been nice to see her and Taylor together since they looked like mother and daughter.
"Get me a bromide - and put some gin in it."- Countess de Lave in The Women
Vivien would have been good as Violet. I always thought Vivien/Liz & Jean Simmons resembled.
shareYes, they all looked very much alike. They should've all done a movie together. Could you imagine the acting going on in such a film??
"You're nothing but a carnie girl."
Yes it would have been great.
share[deleted]
Maybe Vivien dropped out because she didn't want to be seen as Elizabeth Taylor's mother? She was only 20 years older and very concerned with her appearance at all times...
L
I agree that given the similarity of their apperences Vivien would have been a good choice as Violet and I think somewhat more belivible with Viven attracting the young men then later Catherine takes her place.I think Vivien's apperence is bit more delicate and cat like then Liz be the resembalance is there no question.Not to take a thing away from Hepburn though.
shareB3405 - But Violet ( Hepburn) wasn't Catherine's (Taylor's) mother - she was her aunt by marriage, I think. So there was no need for a resemblance, really. Gary Raymond, as Catherine's brother looked quite a bit like her (colouring wise), anbd the actress who played her mother looked just like a dumpy middle aged woman who coyld have been anyone's mother. I forgot to look up who did the costumes, but they should've been shot - the action took place in 1937, the loveliest era for womens clothing - and yet they were all dressed in the height of Dior/Balmain/Molyneux circa 1959 - when the movie was made.
shareYes I would have liked to have seen Vivien in the part. Theatres' gain was movies' loss as she decided to devote most of her time to the stage. Hepburn was wonderful in the part but she didn't really like the play and banged on for years about how she hated the movie etc.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
I know that no one will agree with me when I say this but I will say it anyway. I really do not like Vivien Leigh. I hated her performances in GWTW and Streetcar. She always tends to overact, and as the above poster she would deffinatley come off unhinged from the beginning. Katharine Hepburn is my favorite part of this film. She steals every scene she is in for me, so naturally I am very happy with the choice to go with Hepburn.
Of course he has a knife he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians!
I saw part of this the other day and I have to say, I thought it was Hepburn who WAY over-acted. Vivien Leigh might have been a refreshing change from the haughty Hepburn.
shareI agree - I think Hepburn was terrible in this movie - mainly because she cannot do a Southern or New Orleans accent - she has one accent and that is all she was capable of doing, making her extremely limited as an actress, unlike people like Liz Taylor or Meryl Streep, who are/were capable of a wide range of accents and voices. I find Hepburn to be particularly monochromatic in her portrayals - that is not to say that I do not like her - just that she has much less range than other actresses. It would have been nice if she could have used a New Orleans accent in this movie, and I think Vivien Leigh could have done that.
Taylor actually took over Leigh's role in Elephant Walk when the latter became ill. They looked so much alike that several exterior location shots of Leigh were used in the final film; if you look closely you can briefly spot her in a number of establishing shots, riding in a car, walking, etc.
share[deleted]
I don't know if Vivien would have necessarily given a better performance but, she certainly would have been more believable as "male-bait".
shareI think she would have been able to be domineering but simultaneously fragile. Hepburn doesn't want the truth about Sebastian to be known, but it's hard to believe she would have been destroyed by either the knowledge or the notoriety. Vivien could have gone into madness at the end a bit more convincingly (and I like Hepburn in the role). Violet was never manbait in the same way Katherine was. She just made sure Sebastian met a lot of people. That enabled him to choose his partners among "nice" people, not poor boys. Katherine was a different type, and her attractions changed the dating pool for him.
GOP Spammers: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008 080603589.html
and receive 3rd billing - plus Taylor would probably suck up to her.
shareI love Vivien Leigh, and I don't think there was any part she couldn't have played, had she chose. That being said, I love the fact that it is Kate Hepburn in this movie, rather than Viv. In the opening, when Montgomery Clift is visiting Hepburn's character, she is absolutely chilling in the delivery of her lines. As they stroll about the garden, her dialoque and demeanor set the stage for the entire story. This may not be apparent on the first viewing, but if you watch it twice, or more times, you can understand exactly what the entire movie is about. She gives such subtle clues, and her expressions and tone of her voice are as important as her lines. Her acting restraint is amazing. As she advised a young Anthony Hopkins in "Lion in Winter," don't act -- just say the lines, but don't "act." This is exactly what she did to perfection. She's terrifying in those opening scenes.
sharesorry to say this but I've never liked Katherine Hepburn ... she just seemed to be playing the same part over and over again in every movie I've seen her in. Sure she changes a few accents here and there, she sometimes plays negative characters ( like she does here) but all in all she's always the hard as nails, no nonsense, slightly frigid woman. I'm not saying she was like that in real life but that, all in all, the only character she plays and it's no different here. Not to mention how wooden she is in every role!
ask the spokesperson, I don't have a brain
[deleted]
I'm actually a bigger fan of Vivien Leigh than Katharine Hepburn but I think Hepburn was the better choice here. Vivien would have played Violet as more of a aging coquette, a faded flirt. I can't quite see her as the super-hard (despite her charm) no nonsense control-freak and more than a bit of a bully that is Violet.
shareAnyone but KH. Only detected an attempt at an accent in one line. Terribly miscast as a Southerner. Though maybe few established actresses of that era would take a role of a woman beyond her prime.
shareI think there would have been more fragility in her performance, not as robust as Katherine's, not as stiff upper lip or iron spined.
share[deleted]
Definitely an interesting idea, but I think by 1959 her Bipolar disorder was festering full bore. Playing a traumatized woman facing a lobotomy might have unraveled her completely. Although she still went on to do The Roman Spring movie and Ship of Fools, so maybe not.
share