Lolita

[ftg]

@caligulathegod

Sue Lyon died at 73 on Thursday.

Sue Lyon Dead: Lolita Actress Was 73

Wow, had not heard this.

IMDb link. No listings since 1980. Hollywood took its toll on her.

Yeah, The Flim-Flam Man. Good role in a good film without too much of the squickiness of Lolita.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Didn’t I read something about getting the go-ahead for Kubrick when he was willing to cast a girl older than the book Lolita so as to soften that blow? That bikini shot in the movie didn’t look at all sexually immature to me. My sixteen-year-old self would NOT have had a problem deciding to ask her out whereas were she truly twelve she’d have seemed to be one more kid.

And, since we’re here, looking over the IMDB page for the 1962 version I found what is possibly the LEAST subtle movie poster ever.

If it’s not the most, it’s on the short list.

[Tinker_Grey]

@Jonathan_Chance

Didn’t I read something about getting the go-ahead for Kubrick when he was willing to cast a girl older than the book Lolita so as to soften that blow? That bikini shot in the movie didn’t look at all sexually immature to me. My sixteen-year-old self would NOT have had a problem deciding to ask her out whereas were she truly twelve she’d have seemed to be one more kid.

And, since we’re here, looking over the IMDB page for the 1962 version I found what is possibly the LEAST subtle movie poster ever.

If it’s not the most, it’s on the short list.

Oh, gods! My eyes!

[Cayuga]

@Charlie_Wayne

I once heard a story somewhere. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where. But I’m fairly certain the source was some popular site or maybe some documentary. It was about Shelley Winters and how she came to audition for a part and the first thing she did was to pull her two Oscars out of her purse and put them on the desk of the casting director. I suppose she felt that ensured she would get the part.

The point of that story was to mock the people who were in charge of the studios at the time (and maybe still are, I have no idea): twenty-somethings with MBAs and no knowledge of or appreciation for movies.

An actress of Winters’s stature is not asked to audition. No A-list actor is. They are simply offered the role, and they decide if they want it or not.

Oversized … hand bags? pocket books? … were fashionable then. Like the size of a carry-on today. Winters came in to the audition and sat down. She reached into her bag, pulled out the Oscar she won for* The Diary of Anne Frank*, and set it on the table. She reached back into the bag, pulled out the Oscar she won for A Patch of Blue, and set it on the table. Then she looked the producer in the eye and said, “Some people think I can act.”
ETA: I sympathize with you and your reaction to Winters. The presence of Rachel McAdams in a movie totally ruins it for me, and I couldn’t tell you why. But the fact is that Winters had achieved a certain status in Hollywood beyond which actors are not expected to audition.