There's no way someone with class would have been attracted to her. Hobson says he likes her at their first meeting - would'nt have happened.. Liza is way over the top and annoying. And not in the least bit attractive. Was she their first choice, because I can think of 20 other actresses that would have been better in that role. And I'm someone who really likes the film.
I agree, she is awful on all aspects. I dont know about other movies but in this one she looks and acts like a buffoon.
According to trivia, the following actresses were considered for "Linda":
Kay Lenz, Tuesday Weld, Mia Farrow, Farrah Fawcett, Goldie Hawn, Barbara Hershey, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Bette Midler, Gilda Radner, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd and Meryl Streep were all considered for the role of Linda.
All except Sarandon would have been better than Minelli in my opinion, with Lenz, Weld, or Hawn being my top three choices.
To me, bad love interest casting is obvious when either I don't care if they end up together, or even think they'd be better off apart. This is one of those cases.
Believe it or not, I think Liza was perfect for the role. The only two of the aforementioned actresses who would have been plausible are Diane Keaton and Gilda Radner, but Liza had that "rough around the edges" quality to her.
No shirt, no shoes, no SEXY.
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I read the list of actresses that could have played the Linda part in the trivia and I think THEY all could have been better!! She was horrible and it was not believable that he had to have her!!
shareIt proved that when you are rich and you can have attractive women - you probably will fall in love with a not so attractive one.
shareWhen I first saw "Arthur" way back in 1981, I thought Minnelli was miscast. At the time, Minnelli's film career had stalled and I thought her casting was opportunistic: she understood that the material and the casting of Moore and Gielgud would likely make the film good and she needed a hit badly. You could say she at least had sound judgement but I thought that she was out of place in the movie especially playing a supposedly working class girl. She was Liza Minnelli and as far from that element as one could get.
Thirty plus years later and numerous viewings of "Arthur" have led me to reconsider her in the role. While Minnelli is not exactly right for the role, I really don't know who would be. Of the three major roles, Linda (Minnelli) is the most under written. It is not entirely clear to me what the character of Linda is supposed to be and why Arthur would be so smitten with her and that has nothing to do with how Minnelli plays her. The movie's plot involves Arthur finding his one true love but Steve Gordon failed In only the one respect by not writing a character that we could believe could be Arthur's one true love. He developed the characters of Arthur and Hobson and their relationship and then threw in the character of Linda without thinking it all the way through. It doesn't diminish the movie (it is one of my favorites) but if the character had been more developed I think "Arthur" could have been something of a comic masterpiece.
In Minnelli's defense, she does a lot with and for the role. She has great comic timing and she manages to hold her own against Moore and Gielgud.
Well, let's be honest. Minnelli doesn't need to "hold her own" against anyone. The woman has a monumental talent that she clearly inherited from her mother, arguably one of the greatest concert performers in history. She's shared the stage and screen with some of the most legendary performers in history. So, I would never be worried about her on screen with anyone.
However, I think the problem is that her persona doesn't match the character. She's got great chemistry with Moore and Gielgud. She's got great timing (which would never be in question given her earliest work up to today). But the problem is that Minnelli's persona is glitz and glamour and music, not a working class wanna-be actress. Her personality is very special and sometime eclipses characters that she plays. And I think that that personality shows through. Evidence of this is that the part of the movie where she seems most comfortable is the engagement party when she's all dressed up and not trying to be one of the hoi polloi.
Hoi polloi means "the common people" and everyone always gets this wrong.
"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Sim--" - Frank Grimes
And, here is what I said:
"she seems most comfortable is the engagement party when she's all dressed up and not trying to be one of the hoi polloi"
She's comfortable when she's at a party with rich people (all dressed up) and not when she's a waitress (the hoi polloi).
I thought she was fantastic and I am no fan of hers.
I would say my memory is not what it used to be. But I don't remember what my memory used to be.
Even though we know from the beginning that Arthur is considered "uncouth" in his world of high society, at first it doesn't entirely make sense that a wealthy person like him would be attracted to someone like Linda, whom he knows is attempting to shoplift.
The excitement Arthur verbally expresses over what Linda is doing makes sense to him, then it's up to us to try to see what he sees in her. He spontaneously decides to become part of her scheme. They both have a flair for BS and begin to bond.
Eventually we see that Linda "cleans up well" when she goes to the engagement party and doesn't seem too out of place (not to mention that she looks great in the shorts she wore in her apartment). Linda fills a void in Arthur's life that other women may never have been able to.
To sum it up, although at first it didn't seem like it, in my opinion Liza Minnelli was perfectly suited for the role of Linda Morolla.
Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.
Susan was way more beautiful than Liza. I couldn't see the attraction either.
shareYep. Although Arthur is one of my all time favorites, Liza was terrible and not the least bit attractive (not to mention her nasty smoking). I also thought Susan was a dog (that dress at the party?? Awful!!!).... the hooker was too, come to think of it!! This movie needed some attractive women!!!
I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!
I actually thought Susan was pretty. The dress did suck tho! The Hooker was so-so, looked the part. Liza was cute.
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