The iconic roles turned down by Audrey Hepburn
Being one of the biggest stars in Hollywood means that the offers come thicker and faster than ever before, and as a result, some of cinema’s most notable names have rejected opportunities that would go on to become iconic in their own right. Audrey Hepburn was no different, but she did pretty well for herself anyway.
Shooting to worldwide superstardom in 1953 after Roman Holiday made her the first female performer to ever win an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Bafta for the same performance, Hepburn parlayed her newfound recognition into a legendary career on screen and stage that saw her win virtually every accolade going.
In 1994, she became just the fifth-ever recipient of the EGOT after her Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony Award for her 1954 stint treading the boards in Ondine were joined by a Grammy victory, which she earned on her very first nomination after Audrey Hepburn’s Enchanted Tales was named ‘Best Spoken Word Album for Children’.
With a laundry list of classics under her belt, including the aforementioned Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, My Fair Lady, and many more, among her filmography, it’s not as if Hepburn’s career was dogged by many missed opportunities and regrets. That being said, she was under consideration for a number of parts that ended up winning their fair share of praise.
She could have collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock twice after she found herself being floated as a prospective Melanie Daniels in The Birds and for the dual role of Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster in Vertigo, only for Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak to get the nod and work with the ‘Master of Suspense’.
Hepburn reportedly rejected Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far because the storyline unfolding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands hewed too closely to her own experiences, where she spent Operation Market Garden residing in the village of Velp, near Arnhem.
Producer Walter Wanger suggested her for the title role in 1963’s Cleopatra when Elizabeth Taylor was on the fence about committing to the part before she secured the industry’s first million-dollar pay cheque. David Lean actively pursued her to play Tonya Gromeko in Doctor Zhivago, and she was William Friedkin’s number one contender to play Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist before Ellen Burstyn got the nod.
As the director explained in his autobiography, Hepburn “responded favourably” to the script “but said she would only do the film in Rome as she was living there, married to an Italian doctor.” When he discovered it was a condition and not a request, she was out, and Burstyn was in.
Having already played the title role on Broadway, Hepburn declined the chance to reprise her role on the silver screen in Gigi, which ended up making Oscars history as the first movie to win nine prizes on the same night, so maybe that one stung a little bit. Out of Africa‘s Karen Blixen was offered her way before it went to Meryl Streep, and her loss proved to be Rita Moreno’s gain when she opted to pass on becoming West Side Story‘s Maria.
Needless to say, all of those films are classics in their own right, but Hepburn hardly needed them to become a towering figure in Tinseltown history, even if it may have altered the course of her career had she ended up signing on for just one of them.
