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SEARCH FOR SCARLETT |
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Vivien came to Los Angeles in the
first days of December 1938 and on the day of her arrival was introduced
to Myron Selznick, one of Hollywood's leading agents, who happened to be the
Hollywood agent of Laurence Olivier and a brother of David. Myron looked at
her and realized that she might be a possibility in the run for the role of
Scarlett, and thought she should be introduced to David. But Myron knew his
brother well enough; David believed in his instinct and often made impromptu
decisions - it would be better to take him by surprise, especially when he were
excited by something else. The "fire of Atlanta" scene was to be
filmed on December 10th seemed to be a perfect time. Meanwhile Vivien was introduced to Daniel O'Shea who arranged to set up a screen test for her. Vivien started rehearsing her lines. Her entrance onto the scene was staged. On the night of December 10th, Myron dined with Larry and Vivien at the Brown Derby restaurant. He later planned to take his guests to the scene of the shooting, but he kept stalling, because he didn't want to arrive there in the middle of the conflagration. They set off at about 11 p.m. and their arrived at the lot in Culver City when the last cinders were burning out. There is no picture or footage that we can refer to, but we know that Vivien had a make-up applied by a studio make-up man, who had been told to make a "Scarlett O'Hara face". She had her hair down and wore a wide-brimmed hat. She also had a full-length coat on and a beige dress underneath. David Selznick climbed down the platform to greet his brother and his guests and...then no one is sure what happened next. According to Olivier: "I looked back at Vivien, her hair giving the perfect impression of Scarlett's, her cheeks prettily flushed, her lips adorably parted, her green eyes dancing and shining with excitement in the fire-light; I said to myself: 'David won't be able to resist that.'. I retreated leaving the field to Myron. David and George were approaching, and Myron stepped towards them. He indicated Vivien and said, 'David, meet Scarlett O'Hara." David peered intently at Vivien; Myron made a vague gesture towards me. David threw a 'Hello, Larry' into the air, roughly in my direction. Myron and I were left together, eye to eye and ho to hum. David had drawn Vivien a little way from the crowd...George was with them and was clearly interested too. I could hardly believe what was happening, but there it was." According to Selznick: "Before my brother, Myron brought Laurence Olivier and Miss Leigh over to the set to see the shooting of the Burning of Atlanta, I had never seen her [in person]. When he introduced me to her, the flames where lightening up her face and Myron said: 'I want you to meet Scarlett O'Hara.' I took one look and knew she was right- at least right as far her appearance went- at least right as far as my conception of how Scarlett O'Hara looked. Later on, her tests, made under George Cukor's brilliant direction, showed that she could act the part right down to the ground, but I'll never recover from that first look." She seems to have acted out the character of Scarlett. Despite the late hour Selznick asked Vivien if she would like to run through the dialogue with Cukor provided she wasn't too tired. Vivien's answer "I'm never tired" only further endeared her to him. By 1 a.m. they were in Cukor's office. She tried to stay off the topic of "Yank at Oxford" (Selznick saw this film, and thought she gave a wonderful performance, but would never consider her for Scarlett). She read a scene for Cukor: "She began reading this thing very sweetly, and very, very clipped.... So I struck her across the face with the rudest thing I could say. She screamed with laughter. That was the beginning of our most tender, wonderful friendship." On December 12th, David wrote to his wife, who was in New York: "Myron rolled in just exactly too late, arriving about a minute and a half after the last building had fallen and burned and after the shots were completed. With him were Larry Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Shhh: she's the Scarlett dark horse, and looks damned good. (Not for anybody's ears but your own: it's narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh). We're making final tests this week..." Her screen tests were made on December 21st and 22nd and these were: getting ready for the BBQ with Hattie McDaniel; paddock scene with rather wooden Douglass Montgomery and library scene with Leslie Howard. Later on all tests were sent over to New York so that Jock Whitney would have his say on this matter. On the Christmas Day of 1938 George Cukor invited a bunch of people over for lunch. He took Vivien aside and told her the part had been cast. "My heart sank to the bottom of George's swimming-pool" Vivien recalled. He said "I guess we're stuck with you". Her contract, signed on January 13th, 1939 ended the almost three-year nation-wide search.  Was she really the perfect choice? Was there really no one easier around to work with? Was she really worth all the trouble? These are just some of the question that bothered Selznick throughout the production of GWTW. But his later words clear all doubts: "In addiciton to her vitality and beauty, her striking personality and enormous natural ability, Vivien Leigh had a background of training and acting experience that made her a fine actress. Vivien made no secret of her opinion of certain scenes as she went along: during the 122 days she was on the set during Gone With the Wind, she groused plenty: before a scene, she would be muttering deprecations under her breath and making small moans. According to Vivien, the situation was stupid, the dialogue was silly, nobody could possibly believe the whole scene. And then, at a word from Victor Fleming...she would walk into the scene and do such a magnificent job that everybody on the set would cheering." <--Go to Page 1 2 3 |
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