“A terrible blow”: the 1984 movie that made Andie MacDowell want to jump out of a window
If you’re a fan of Margaret Qualley, then you have a lot to thank her mother, Andie MacDowell, for, a talented performer in her own right, who rose to prominence in the 1980s.
Having first made a splash as a model for the likes of Calvin Klein and L’Oreal, she made the move into movies to great effect. While she’s a top name these days, her road to the top was not a smooth one.
Her very first appearance on the big screen came in a film with one of the most cumbersome titles in Hollywood history, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, one of the many retellings of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, famously nominated for a screenplay Oscar, which resulted in the first ever Oscar nomination for a dog. Christopher Lambert plays the title character, with supporting performances from Ian Holm, James Fox, and Ralph Richardson, and as for MacDowell, she plays Jane Porter, the love interest of the loinclothed protagonist…or does she?
In a retrospective on his film with The Hollywood Reporter, director Hugh Hudson revealed that, on the surface, MacDowell was perfect for the role of Jane. He didn’t want her to be blonde, as he thought that had been done to death. The problem came when she opened her mouth. The South Carolina-born star had a thick Southern accent, which Hudson thought didn’t fit the part, so under much duress, he was forced to take drastic action.
“I had the unenviable task of telling her we were going to re-voice her,” Hudson revealed, “She didn’t like it. Oh, a terrible blow it was”.
MacDowell’s voice was dubbed in post-production, with Glenn Close chosen to replace her, which oddly foreshadowed her voice role as Kala the gorilla in Disney’s version of Tarzan 15 years later. The young actor was devastated that her first big role was going to be tampered with, and at one point, things got pretty drastic.
“When I heard the news, I was in my hotel room, alone,” she revealed (via IMDB), “I didn’t deceive myself for one minute about what the media was going to do with it or what people in the business were going to think. I said to myself, ‘Either I jump out that window out of humiliation and embarrassment, or I fight’. The choice was there: die or fight.”
Thankfully, MacDowell chose to fight. She completely dedicated herself to acting, learning the famous method technique at the Actors Studio in New York City. She worked with a number of famous acting coaches, including Harold Guskin, who had (ironically) taught Close early in her career.
After years of hard graft, she landed the role that would convince everyone that she was a star as Ann Bishop Mullany in Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape. She was nominated for a Golden Globe, won an Independent Spirit Award, and kick-started a brand new portion of her career. Safe to say that she was never dubbed over again.
