British papers have probably made more of Emma Thompson’s recent dismissal of Audrey Hepburn than her slightly flip comments warranted, but it has prompted an interesting amount of side-taking over the merits of one of Old Hollywood’s most beloved (or so we thought) icons. If you’re new to this story, Thompson’s jabs at Hepburn were made with specific reference to her performance in “My Fair Lady,” for which Thompson herself is scripting the upcoming big-screen remake:
[T]here needs to be a new version. I’m not hugely fond of the film. I find Audrey Hepburn fantastically twee. Twee is whimsy without wit. It’s mimsy-mumsy sweetness without any kind of bite. And that’s not for me. She can’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.
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… It’s high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted, because it’s a very fantastic part for a woman.
The occasional indignity of being an Academy Award champ is that it gives obituaries an immediate short-cut through one’s career: a lifetime of distinguished work can be handily reduced to “culminated in an Oscar win for _________.”