Emma Thompson versus Audrey Hepburn

On the eve of being given a star on the Walk of Fame, Emma Thompson recently gave an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. In it, she made a little remark that sparked a lot of online chat. I read a lot of this online chat. After vociferous complaints (I love that phrase; thanks Little Edie!) about Thompson’s little remark, I went to the online interview and read it for myself.

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.

Oh my goodness. What a bad move.

I should say, before we go any further, that this comment does not affect my opinion of Emma Thompson at all. I’ve loved her since the first moment I saw her in Henry V. In fact, the Thompson – Branagh pairing is important in our household, as three of their movies together rank among our favourites (and four of his directorial movies are on our list of all time favourites). Miss Thompson’s films, in fact, make up a large portion of my list of favourites, Howard’s End being in my top five. I have never found her work to be anything but completely wonderful. I have never met the lady, so I don’t know what her personality is like but I bet she and I would be great friends.

This comment, though, was a simple lapse in good judgment.

Why do this? Why would anyone choose to make a comment like this? To criticize, publically, probably the most beloved movie star of all time is just an error in rhetoric. Other than Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury, I can think of absolutely no other movie star who is so universally beloved. No matter what one might think, personally, of her acting ability, it cannot be denied that the people with whom she worked in the movies all hailed her as a delight; the people who went to her movies adored her – the people who watch her on dvd worship her. Then there is the little matter of her work with UNICEF, which made her a kind of modern day saint. She is considered, by almost everyone in the world who cares about such a thing, to be the most beautiful person of all time. The level of adoration for the woman is unparalleled.

So WHY do something so ill thought out as go into an interview and disparage her work in one of her most popular films (a best picture Oscar winner, no less)?

Tch.

Oh, Emma.

If you are going to be a part of a remake of a cherished best Oscar winning picture, it isn’t necessary to criticize the picture or the star. You have to know that people are going to be upset by the remake of My Fair Lady. Whatever a person’s own particular views on the film are, it’s a bit foolhardy to think that the public is going to buy into this idea, at the onset. Maybe they will come around later; but right now, nobody wants there to be a remake of My Fair Lady. Nobody wants a remake of Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca or Citizen Kane either. Frankly, I don’t know why people in the movies are continuing to do remakes – it has proven a disastrous choice, thus far. Did ANYONE like the remake of Psycho? How about the remake of The Manchurian Candidate? Not even the presence of Meryl Streep made that film viable. The remake of The Women was savaged. The remake of Sabrina (a movie I happen to love) almost ended Julia Ormond’s career before it was off the ground. Why not just go all the way and do a remake of All About Eve or The Sound of Music?

But somebody is bound and determined to make a new film version of My Fair Lady and they asked an Oscar winning screenwriter to create it. Great. I am all for Emma Thompson writing movies because she is a brilliant writer. I am interested to see what they all come up with.

There is, though, no need to taint the entire project by, right out of the gate, insulting the original film and the original leading lady, who is dead and cannot defend herself against verbal attacks on her talents, which earned her several Oscar nominations, one Oscar and legions of fans.

Wouldn’t it have been better to focus on the positive aspects of the movie? If you need to defend your project from detractors, wouldn’t it be better to say “we are going back to the original Shaw text and focusing on that” or “we are building on the foundation created by the Broadway play and picked up by George Cukor in his beautiful film” or “we think we have something new to say” or “we think it is time for a new generation to be exposed to this great work of art” or “we think it is time for another actor and actress to have a crack at these two beautiful parts”. There were so many other things Miss Thompson could have said about the artistic process and this project that would have been so much better on her public image and the public perception of this project, rather than what she chose to say. Sadly, now the interview has been published, and on the internet, where it can be forwarded on to everyone who is going to take umbrage at her comments and then go to chat boards and vilify her and the My Fair Lady remake.

I’m not going to vilify her. I think Emma Thompson is a brilliant actress and a brilliant writer; I also think she is a beautiful woman and a person who is allowed to have her opinions – I mean, aren’t we all allowed to have our own opinions?

We should just think about potential reaction to them before we express them in public.

The original inteview:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iab2d241f10a74f753451b9e614df9711