The one role Audrey Hepburn cherished the most: “A dreamer who lived a fairy tale”
Audrey Hepburn has long been so much more than just an actor, standing as a symbol of elegance and kindness, her screen persona one of grace and poise, such that the image of her in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with her hair piled on top of her head and a cigarette holder in her hand, is a cuturally defining one, encapsulating her unforgettable cinematic presence and captivating offscreen persona too.
Upon her ascent to stardom, Hepburn soon became one of the most famous actors in the world, appearing in musicals like My Fair Lady and Funny Face and romantic comedies such as Roman Holiday, marking herself an undisputed icon, with her choice of characters reflecting someone who wanted to maintain a specific image that was, above everything, unproblematic.
You see, Hepburn found it easiest to play characters she could relate to, which is why she found her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s so difficult. She reportedly said via Audrey Hepburn by Barry Parris, “Holly is so contrary to me. She frightens me. This part called for an extroverted character. I am an introvert”.
Instead, she cherished the kinds of roles that she could see herself in, believing that being able to tap into your own experiences was a significant part of bringing a character to life. Many actors will argue that this is not true, that you don’t need to be able to relate to a character to play them, but for Hepburn, finding part of herself in a character was an essential element of mastering a role, which is why she loved playing the lead in Billy Wilder’s Sabrina.
The film charts Sabrina’s romantic affection for William Holden’s David Larrabee, for whom Sabrina’s father works as a chauffeur. After trying to kill herself because of her unrequited love, she moves to Paris, and upon her return, matures significantly, allowing her dreams of being in the perfect relationship to manifest in reality; however, things don’t pan out as she initially expected.
The beloved movie earned several Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Actress’ for Hepburn, but she lost out to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl, and regardless, she really loved her experience of playing Sabrina, which also starred Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larrabee, the more responsible older brother.
Discussing her appreciation for the role, which she found that she could relate to, she told International Herald Tribune, “You have to refer to your own experience, what else have you got? Sabrina was a dreamer who lived a fairy tale, and she was a romantic, an incorrigible romantic, which I am.”
She added, “I could never be cynical. I wouldn’t dare. I’d roll over and die before that. After all, I’ve been so fortunate in my own life, I feel I’ve been born under a lucky star”.
You might call it a skill issue to have to refer to your own experience to bring fictional characters to life, but it seems like Hepburn just preferred to exist in a world where dreams prevail, and romance is a perpetual possibility, having grown up marred by the trauma of war. It was a time she experienced malnutrition, so once she found that her luck had changed, she wanted to keep it that way, preferring not to dwell on the more brutal sides of life, of which she had seen too much.
