The riskiest role of Audrey Hepburn’s career: “No question about it”
When you think of Audrey Hepburn, subversion and taboo don’t really come to mind. She was the classic Hollywood good girl, known for her elegance and innate classiness, which was reflected in roles that saw her play typically innocent and charming leading women.
With movies like Sabrina, Funny Face, and Roman Holiday, Hepburn communicated an image that was totally admirable and clean-cut, to the point that when she eventually took on the part of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a character who many have classed as somewhat of a call girl, she was hesitant. Hepburn worried that the role was too far removed from herself, and considering the fact that Truman Capote initially wanted Marilyn Monroe – Hepburn’s Hollywood opposite – to play the part, you can see why the actor was unsure that she was the right fit.
Still, Hepburn triumphed when she took on roles that were a little more daring – perhaps she should’ve done it more often. An example of this was her role in The Children’s Hour with Shirley MacLaine, an early exploration of lesbianism, although the pair’s roles weren’t exactly explicit. Still, the discussion of a relationship between two women was rather scandalous at the time, and Hepburn and MacLaine both knew that the film would be controversial.
It was based on Lillian Hellman’s play of the same name, which sees two teachers at an all-girls boarding school suspected of being lesbian lovers. This kind of setting for a tale of sexual repression and scandal was nothing new, but Hepburn and MacLaine delivered fantastic performances in the leading roles (although it was Fay Bainter who earned an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actress’).
MacLaine knew that she and Hepburn were taking a bit of a risk by starring in a film about such a taboo, but they were no bigots. “No question about it. But Audrey and I both grew up in the ballet world, so we had no problems with how to accept that. She was a dancer, too. Not as professional as I was, she gave it up earlier, I think. But of course, we grew up in a gay world, and so we just wanted to do our part in championing it,” MacLaine wrote in The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvellous Lifetime.
The film was directed by one of Hepburn’s close collaborators, William Wyler, and he knew that Hepburn was the perfect person for the role of Karen. In the book Audrey Hepburn by Barry Parris, Wyler revealed, “The reason I chose Audrey is that she is so clean and wholesome,” to which Hepburn added, “We are in [such] close communication we hardly have to talk. I know when he feels it’s wrong.”
The Children’s Hour was acclaimed, although it’s not remembered as fervently as Hepburn’s other movies from the era. Still, it demonstrated that she was an actor who could take risks, and her insistence on championing a topic that was particularly taboo at the time reflected the good nature she carried with her through each project.
