BIOGRAPHY: eARLY CAREER
In 1945, after the war, Hepburn left the Arnhem Conservatory and moved to
Amsterdam, where she took ballet lessons with Sonia Gaskell.[16] In 1948,
Hepburn went to London and took dancing lessons with the renowned Marie Rambert.
Hepburn eventually asked Rambert about her future. Rambert assured her that she
could continue to work there and have a great career, but the fact she was
relatively tall (1.7 m, or 5'7") coupled with her poor nutrition during the war
would keep her from becoming a prima ballerina. Hepburn trusted Rambert's
assessment and decided to pursue acting, a career in which she at least had a
chance to excel. After Hepburn became a star, Rambert said in an interview, "she
was a wonderful learner. If she had wanted to persevere, she might have become
an outstanding ballerina." Hepburn's mother was working menial jobs to
support them and Hepburn needed to find a paying job. Since she had trained all
her life to be a performer, acting seemed a sensible career. She said "I needed
the money; it paid £3 more than ballet jobs."
Her acting career started with the educational film Dutch in Seven Lessons. She
then played in musical theatre in productions such as High Button Shoes and
Sauce Piquante. Hepburn's first role in a motion picture was in the British film
One Wild Oat in which she played a hotel receptionist. She played several more
minor roles in Young Wives' Tale, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob,
and Monte Carlo Baby. During the filming of Monte Carlo Baby Hepburn was chosen
to play the lead character in the Broadway play Gigi that opened on 24 November
1951, at the Fulton Theatre and ran for 219 performances. The writer
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette upon first seeing Hepburn reportedly said 'voilą!
There's our Gigi!' She won a Theatre World Award for her debut performance and
it had a successful six month run.
Her first significant film performance was in the 1952 film Secret People, in
which she played a prodigy ballerina. Naturally, Hepburn did all of her own
dancing scenes. Hepburn's first starring role and first American film was
opposite Gregory Peck in the Hollywood motion picture Roman Holiday. Producers
initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, but director William Wyler was
so impressed by Hepburn's screen test (the camera was left on and candid footage
of Hepburn relaxing and answering questions, unaware that she was still being
filmed, displayed her talents), that he cast her in the lead. Wyler said, "She
had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. She also was very
funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's the girl!'"
The movie was to have had Gregory Peck's name above the title in large font with
"introducing Audrey Hepburn" beneath. After filming had been completed, Peck
called his agent and, predicting correctly that Hepburn would win the Oscar for
Best Actress, had the billing changed so that her name also appeared before the
title in type as large as his. Hepburn and Peck bonded during filming, and there
were rumors that they were romantically involved; both denied it. Hepburn,
however, added, "actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading
man and vice versa. If you're going to portray love, you have to feel it. You
can't do it any other way. But you don't carry it beyond the set." Because of
the instant celebrity that came with Roman Holiday, Hepburn's illustration was
placed on the September 7, 1953, cover of TIME.
Hepburn's performance received much critical praise. A.H. Weiler noted in The
New York Times, "Although she is not precisely a newcomer to films, Audrey
Hepburn, the British actress who is being starred for the first time as Princess
Ann, is a slender, elfin, and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike in
her profound appreciation of newly-found, simple pleasures and love. Although
she bravely smiles her acknowledgment of the end of that affair, she remains a
pitifully lonely figure facing a stuffy future." Hepburn would later call Roman
Holiday her dearest movie, because it was the one that made her a star.
After filming Roman Holiday for four months, Hepburn went back to New York and
did eight months of Gigi. The play was performed in Los Angeles and San
Francisco in its last month. She was given a seven-picture contract with
Paramount with twelve months in between films to allow her time for stage work.
Credit: Wikipedia