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Emma Thompson slated for Audrey Hepburn attack
Hepburn ‘couldn’t sing or act’ and was ‘fantastically twee’, British actress claims as she receives her Hollywood star
She may have been inducted into Hollywood's 'Walk of Fame', but the British actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson has found herself embroiled in a row in Tinseltown after declaring that the iconic Oscar-winner Audrey Hepburn could not sing or act.
Thompson, who is writing the script for a new version of the 1964 film My Fair Lady, in which Hepburn played Eliza Doolittle opposite Rex Harrison's Professor Higgins, said that it was "high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted".
Speaking last Friday, the day she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Thompson told the Hollywood Reporter that she was "thrilled" to be overhauling the film and revealed that she was "not hugely fond" of the original.
In Thompson's view, one of the main problems with My Fair Lady is Hepburn herself. Despite being considered by many as a style icon, Hepburn, who died of cancer aged 63 in 1993, was "fantastically twee", according to Thompson. Asked by the Hollywood Reporter what she meant, Thompson said: "Twee is whimsy without wit. Its mimsy-mumsy sweetness without any kind of bite. And that's not for me."
A decade prior to her turn in My Fair Lady Hepburn had won the best actress Oscar for her role in 1954's Roman Holiday and was nominated four other times for films including Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Nun's Story. Yet for Thompson, Hepburn couldn't "sing and she can't really act, I'm afraid. I'm sure she was a delightful woman - and perhaps if I had known her I would have enjoyed her acting more, but I don't and I didn't, so that's all there is to it, really."
She also told Variety: "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."
According to Thompson, that "fantastic part" is going to Carey Mulligan, the Oscar-nominated British star of An Education.
Thompson's comments have provoked an angry response from Hepburn fans. On the Hollywood Reporter's website one reader called Thompson's attack on the actress as "out of line, mean-spirited and not true". Another retorted: "Wasn't the word 'twee' practically coined for movies like Thompson's dreary, humorless, insufferably overrated version of Sense and Sensibility?" ·
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Myrna - sad to hear you are missing Glenda Jackson. Since she became an MP for Hampstead in London she has given some of her finest performances, some people said she is bit typecast but for me no-one gets near her performances as a politician who cares even though she had the worst attendance record in Parliament of all 630 MP's, turned up for only 27 per cent of votes, spoke in only two debates and did not ask any parliamentary questions at all in 2007-8.
I distinctly remember her Oscar worthy performance in "The saga of the local post office". It went like this - the Royal Mail (backed by the government party Glenda represented) proposed closing many local post offices including Glenda's. Glenda gave a stirring performance as the local MP who stood side by side with the protesters but (and here's the plot twist) then voted for the closures in Parliament. Her performances were so convincing that she had all of the protesters completely believing she cared about them - marvellous! Believe me Glenda is still in the business of acting.
Yes! It is about time Professor Higgins is put in his place. Best Emma to measure up? Answer: Emma Goldman!
I AM a Brit and I think Emma T is speaking through her not very pretty, much over-rated, a**e!
She seems to think that anyone cares a fig for her opinions, when in fact the only person who does is Emma T herself!
She would do much better by forgetting her own thoughts and opinions and sticking to spouting the words written in the scripts she is lucky enough to be given.
As for "It's high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted, because it's a very fantastic part for a woman." - yes, possibly, but NOT Emma T! She only ever acts "Emma T"!
In declaring that Audrey Hepburn couldn't act, Ms. Thompson is being disrespectful of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the public at large, while trying to prepare us to accept her proposition that My Fair Lady needs remaking.
If she is an artist, then, perhaps she should do what artists do: Create. Instead of going the cheap and easy way of remaking what has already been well-done, just so you can showcase a new actress and make some money in the process. My Fair Lady was already based on another work, G. B. Shaw's Pygmalion. So, is a copy of a copy her idea of artistic creation?
She could promote her movie (copy or "take") without trying to impose her biased opinion upon us. Leave Audrey alone, please. Her movies speak by themselves, thank goodness!
I absolutely agree with Emma Thompson. (And I'm not a Brit.) It's Hollywood which has a hard time being honest about "icons". Emma Thompson's films are about the only ones I watch these days, unless Maggie Smith makes one, or Vanessa Redgrave. (And oh what I'd give for Glenda Jackson to still be in the biz. . . .) And then there's Derek Jacobi, Martin Shaw, even Lenny Henry for comedy -- hey, I could go on and on. Those Brits know how to act, not just show up in front of a camera.
Emma Thompson is a highly overrated individual and not a superb actress . Her performance in Sense and Sensibility shows that, when a 17 year old Kate Winslett acted her off the screen. What has Emma Thompson ever done that was outstanding? Audrey Hepburn was an outstanding beauty which Thompson is n't and let's be honest she s just reworking classics of Literature written by others who are far superior to her ; Shaw and Austen . The script is n't even hers. And WHY remake My Fair Lady ?? Does it need to be remade ??? It's timeless which Im afraid Thompson just ...isn't. JUST DON'T GO AND WATCH IT...
I have to agree with the Hollywood Reporter: "out of line, mean-spirited and not true". Hepburn herself admitted she couldn't sing, didn't sing the part. Her acting in the role was delicate and brittle and repressed - in the way an Edwardian woman might be expected to behave, especially in a situation so off kilter. But that aside, I never liked Emma Thompson, who always seems so full of herself, and these comments just show her mean spirit.
I am very disappointed in Ms. Thompson, whose work I admire. I hope she reconsiders and recants her narrow-minded views about Audrey Hepburn, who was an outstanding actress as well. There is room for them both.