The Hollywood icon Orson Welles hated the most: “I don’t want to see her act”
Orson Welles might have earned himself the title of being a Hollywood icon when he made the widely heralded Citizen Kane when he was just 25, but he didn’t half spout some awful, and rather mean, opinions.
After writing, directing, and starring in his directorial debut in 1941, Welles seemed to let the legacy that the film garnered over time go to his head. Most critics loved it, and it has always remained one of the ultimate classics, basically becoming the ultimate piece of shorthand when describing an incredible film. It seems like it’ll always remain up there, though, because it changed cinema forever with its pioneering use of flashbacks and other unique storytelling devices that marked a new era for cinematic experimentation in the mainstream.
Welles never shied away from using his platform as a celebrity to espouse some rather controversial cinematic beliefs, though, like when he criticised Alfred Hitchcock for being overrated. “I’ve never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly, the late American movies. Egotism and laziness. And they’re all lit like television shows,” he once said via My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles by Peter Biskind, even calling Rear Window “one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen”.
He didn’t hold back, adding, “To discover that Jimmy Stewart can be a bad actor… Even Grace Kelly is better than Jimmy, who’s overacting.” But these stars were just some of Welles’ many targets, which also included the “stupid” Laurence Olivier and the “hateful” Spencer Tracey.
Welles could be really quite rude, but can you be that surprised? Most Hollywood men with as much power as Welles aren’t to be trusted, and it’s no shock to discover that he could be pretty superficial when it came to talking about why he didn’t like certain stars. For instance, his reasons for disliking a particular Hollywood legend were mainly to do with what she looked like.
In the same book, we discover that Welles wasn’t fond of Bette Davis at all, even though she was an undeniably terrific actor with a pretty sharp tongue herself. “I never could stand looking at Bette Davis, so I don’t want to see her act, you see,” Welles once said, rather cruelly.
If Welles was only interested in watching female actors that he considered beautiful, then he was missing out on some great performances by those he apparently regarded as unattractive. Davis was one of the most acclaimed stars of her generation, appearing in everything from All About Eve to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, but that wasn’t enough for Welles, it seems.
I’d love for Davis to have found out what Welles said about her, because she’d certainly have some rather callous things to spit back in return. I mean, when her long-time rival Joan Crawford died, she famously quipped, “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead? Good.”
Welles is lucky that he was never on the receiving end of Davis, because he probably would’ve walked away looking like quite the fool. However, it seems like they never crossed paths, which is definitely for the best.
