Audrey Hepburn 'couldn't sing and couldn't act', says Emma Thompson- Page 3

[D2]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 12:32pm

To nitpick even further, Stagey, MY FAIR LADY is set in 1910/1912. PYGMALION was written as a contemporary piece when it premiered in 1913 (in Germany, of all places) and New York and London in 1914, and the Wendy Hiller/Leslie Howard film very clearly takes place in the '30s.

[philitalia]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 12:52pm

Probably Thompson has forgotten (or has blocked out the memory) that she (Thompson) played the lead in "Me and My Girl".

Not much of a singing and acting challenge there.
Updated On: 8/11/10 at 12:52 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 1:22pm

To nitpick the furthest, Deet, Shaw wrote PYGMALION in the spring of 1912, and according to the MY FAIR LADY soundtrack booklet "the action takes place in London around 1913." So there.

[Almira]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 1:30pm

I agree with Thompson, and I don't find her classless.

Hepburn is long dead and her feelings can't be hurt.

I look forward to seeing what she does with MY FAIR LADY.

Updated On: 8/10/10 at 01:30 PM

[raker]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 8:12pm

TCM's been playing Pygmalion occasionally for the past few years. It's a wonderful movie. Wendy Hiller was great. I think she had the quality that Emma Thompson is talking about.

Rupert Everett? Really? That doesn't seem like a perfect choice to me. If Higgins must be young and handsome, why not Colin Firth?

[Almira]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 8:48pm

raker, I agree Hiller is a wonderful Eliza.

One of the things I don't care for in the film MY FAIR LADY -and perhaps even the stage version - Is that Eliza is transformed from simple cockney girl to simply elegant lady.

Vs.

PYGMALION where Eliza is transformed from ignorant cocky girl girl to intelligent, elegant lady.

The Eliza of MY FAIR LADY is no match for Higgins. She is not an intellectual threat. When she says - especially as played by Hepburn - that she'll teach phonetics... it is laughable.

However when the Eliza of PYGMALION threatens to teach what she has learned from Higgins.. you believe it quite possible.

I hope Thompson is restoring that to Eliza. Otherwise it is just another Cinderella story.

Updated On: 8/10/10 at 08:48 PM

[into_the_woods2]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 8:50pm

While I agree that the comment "reads bitchy", and perhaps Emma should have kept her opinion to herself to avoid hurting the feelings of the massive Audrey fan base, I'm glad someone finally admitted that Audrey Hepburn is no big deal. I've always been skeptical of why people like Audrey Hepburn so fricken much...it seems to be such an image thing (hence the "Guy thing" comment making sense) and not at all a talent thing. There are hundreds of people I think are more talented than Audrey Hepburn, and Carey Mulligan is one of them.

[dayao]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 9:01pm

Carey Mulligan and Emma Thompson aren't worth a pimple on Audrey Hepburn's decaying arse, either as actresses or especially in the case of Thompson, human beings. And when was the last time you heard Mulligan sing? Is she a soprano with the high notes necessary for Eliza? Based on what I have seen of her so far I already know she can't act her way out of a paper bag. Nobody has even commented on whether any of Thompson's casting choices can even sing. It's 1964 all over, except worse.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/10/10 at 9:39pm

The sound you hear is Emma removing her foot from her mouth.