The Oscar-winning co-star Orson Welles called “just a plain old bad actor”
It’s ironic that Orson Welles, who played many Shakespearean characters over the course of his career, often felt like the protagonist of one of ‘The Bard’s’ greatest tragedies.
He achieved as much success as anyone could imagine when his debut film, Citizen Kane, was hailed as possibly the greatest in history, but it made every subsequent project he worked on feel like a disappointment in comparison.
Welles was brilliant, bold, and brave as a Hollywood artist but notorious for fighting for control, leaving many of his greatest works either incomplete or brutally edited by the studios that released them. Despite the acclaim that his work tended to receive from other filmmakers, he was often a combative figure who had to beg for financing, and thus, earned himself the reputation of being someone with high standards, which made him somewhat difficult to work with.
No one was entirely free of Welles’ critical eye, as he even called out the great Alfred Hitchcock for films he felt were lesser in quality; however, his greatest insults were left for those that he had to share scenes with, as he was an actor first and foremost who didn’t want to be associated with someone who hadn’t quite perfected their craft.
It was only shortly after Citizen Kane won him an Academy Award for writing that Welles was cast alongside Joan Fontaine in an adaptation of the classic novel Jane Eyre from director Robert Stevenson, a highly respected filmmaker who would go on to direct Mary Poppins, The Love Bug, and Beadknobs and Broomsticks for the Walt Disney Company. Welles may not have made any remarks about Stevenson’s direction, but he certainly had thoughts on the performance by Fontaine, which he described as “no good”.
Welles’ affinity for the source material isn’t surprising considering how well-read he was, as Jane Eyre is a novel that has fascinated filmmakers for years and has been adapted for the screen many times. So, it seems he was displeased by the way Fontaine was portraying the titular character, which he felt was inconsistent with the original material, and his frustration was heightened by the fact that he was not in the director’s chair to adjust her performance.
“She’s just a plain old bad actor,” he declared, adding salt to injury, “She’s got four readings, and two expressions, and that’s it, and she was busy being the humble governess, so fucking humble, which is a great mistake because she’s supposed to be a proud little woman who, in spite of her position, stands up for herself. That’s why she interests this bastard of a man.”
None of it mattered, however, because Jane Eyre didn’t end up being a particularly acclaimed film for either Fontaine or Welles, and the 1943 version was vastly outdone by Cary Fukunaga’s 2011 reimagining of the novel, which starred Mia Wasikowska in the titular role and Michael Fassbender in Wells’ shoes.
That being said, Welles’ assertion that Fontaine was “a plain old bad actor” may have raised a few eyebrows, considering that she had recently won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ for her performance in the Hitchcock thriller Suspicion, so as much of a genius as Welles was, it’s also possible that he was a bit of a grump.
