For $1 million, Audrey starred as Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady. Eliza, a poor, flowergirl, is made the object of a wager between a linguistic specialist, Dr. Henry Higgins (played by Rex Harrison) and an intellectual colleague, Colonel Pickering (Played by Wilfrid Hyde-White). Eliza is transformed into an elegant lady in the Pygmalion-style story. While playing opposite Rex Harrison, Audrey got a chance to show her many facets, from her beauty, acting, and dancing, to her singing skill. So, she took vocal lessons, in expectation that her voice would be used in the film. She was deceived into thinking that her voice would only be enhanced in spots.
Unknown to Audrey, her voice was never intended for use, and despite having a suitable singing voice, all of her vocals were dubbed over with those of Marni Nixon's. The news crushed Audrey, who otherwise enjoyed making My Fair Lady. At the time, Hollywood criticized the fact that the person who played Eliza on Broadway, Julie Andrews, was not selected for the film role of Eliza (Anyway, Andrews was filming Mary Poppins at the time.) At the Academy Awards, My Fair Lady and the actors in it won many awards, except for Best Actress. That award went to Andrews for the role of Mary Poppins. It was a cruel way of telling Audrey that she was not the rightful Eliza, but that Andrews should have played that role.
Audrey remained professional and cordial regarding the Academy snubbing. She even posed with Julie Andrews after the ceremony as a gesture of goodwill. Audrey, while continuing to be her normal self in public, was suffering in her marriage. She still tried to save it, and even took a year off to spend with her family. Afterward, she started to work on the movie How to Steal a Million. Audrey was unaware that this movie would start her on her own path of healing and self-realization. |
