The iconic movie Marilyn Monroe rejected because it would be “bad for her image”
Even after all these years, Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most enduring, iconic, and unmistakable figures in Hollywood history. However, despite her prowess, she was convinced to turn down the lead role in an indisputable classic movie that was released just ten months before her passing for reasons that infuriated its creator.
The character of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s has been interpreted by many as being at least partially based on Monroe, so it was understandable that author Truman Capote had her in mind to play the lead role in the feature-length adaptation directed by Blake Edwards.
Audrey Hepburn’s biographer Sam Wasson admitted as much, telling ABC that Monroe “was Truman Capote’s first choice”. When he discovered that Hepburn had ended up with the part instead, he reportedly exclaimed how “Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey”.
Even though she seemed ideal to lead the cast of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, given the many similarities she shared with the version of Golightly that Capote had committed to the page, Wasson pointed the finger of blame at one of Monroe’s associates for turning her off the idea: “The reason Marilyn didn’t take the part is because Paula Strasberg, her advisor and acting coach, said Marilyn should not be playing a lady of the evening,” he said. “That’s interesting in light of how we think of Holly; we don’t think of her as that risqué.”
While claims were made that it was actually Strasberg’s husband Lee who urged her against starring in Breakfast at Tiffany’s on account of how “playing a prostitute would be bad for her image,” Monroe had become one of the most famous names on the planet due in large part to her status as a sex symbol, making it equal parts curious and fascinating that she was so against it, especially when Capote himself had stated to Playboy almost a decade after the film’s release that she wasn’t a lady of the night.
Instead, he operated under the belief that “Holly Golightly was not precisely a call girl” before explaining what her profession really was: “She had no job, but accompanied expense-account men to the best restaurants and night clubs, with the understanding that her escort was obligated to give her some sort of gift, perhaps jewellery or a check,” he continued. “If she felt like it, she might take her escort home for the night. So these girls are the authentic American geishas, and they’re much more prevalent now than in 1943 or 1944, which was Holly’s era.”
In the end, Breakfast at Tiffany’s would win two Academy Awards for its musical accompaniments and secure Hepburn a nomination for ‘Best Actress’ for one of the most defining performances of a career that brought her no shortage of acclaim and accolades. And yet, it would be reasonable to assume it would have been an almost entirely different movie with Monroe front and centre.
