The co-star Katharine Hepburn couldn’t stand working with: “Nothing more frustrating”
As one of Hollywood’s most outspoken personalities throughout her legendary career, Katharine Hepburn didn’t care much for playing politics and deftly trying to navigate the pitfalls of a treacherous industry.
She was always uniquely and unquantifiably herself, which meant she had no issues putting directors, colleagues, or even entire studios in their place if she felt wronged. It didn’t do a thing to hinder her career either, as her record-setting four Academy Awards can attest.
There was a tricky period prior to The Philadelphia Story when it looked like her days as a marketable asset were over, with Hepburn earning the dreaded ‘box office poison’ tag. However, all it often takes is a single movie to reignite a falling star, and she was soon back on top as one of the best and brightest.
With the 1960s looming over the horizon, Hepburn faced another challenge. As unfortunate as it is to say, and it’s still the case to a certain extent, the actor entering her 50s meant that the type of parts she’d grown accustomed to playing, and regularly knocked out of the park, were becoming thinner on the ground.
Joseph L Mankiewicz’s 1959 literary adaptation Suddenly, Last Summer was a challenging production, to put it lightly, and Hepburn’s contributions to the film ended with her spitting at the director. That wasn’t her only issue, though, with a younger co-star destined for greatness being criticised for her rampant unprofessionalism.
Adapted from Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name, Hepburn played the aunt of Elizabeth Taylor’s Catherine Holly, confined to a psychiatric institution after witnessing a family member’s murder on an overseas trip. The former’s Violet Venable wants to cover up the incident by bribing Montgomery Clift’s surgeon to perform a lobotomy, only for the physician to go digging for the truth.
Hepburn and Taylor were both nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Oscars, and the latter won the Golden Globe when they were again shortlisted in the same category. While the veteran appreciated her gifts as an actor, the fact that she was the last one on set every day was something she couldn’t abide.
“There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to work and not being able to,” she raged. “It’s the rudeness that I minded, keeping people waiting when they’re all ready to go. Not just the actors, but the crew, and the people paying the bills.”
In fact, Hepburn was convinced that Taylor “preferred being a movie star to an actress,” even if she acknowledged that she was “truly brilliant” when she eventually showed up to start the day’s filming. That sort of behaviour would become increasingly commonplace the more famous Taylor became, and combined with the Mankiewicz incident, Suddenly, Last Summer wasn’t the greatest experience.
