Emma Thompson ripped on the talents of beloved actress Audrey Hepburn in a series of interviews about her remake of My Fair Lady.
Thompson answered critics who say the remake of the musical classic is unnecessary and bound to flop by dissing the deceased Hepburn with increasing vitriol.
She first told the Hollywood Reporter, “I’m not hugely fond of the film. I find Audrey Hepburn fantastically twee… Twee is whimsy without wit. It is mimsy-mumsy sweetness without any kind of bite. And that’s not for me. She can’t sing and she can’t really act, I’m afraid. I’m sure she was a delightful woman — and perhaps if I had known her I would have enjoyed her acting more, but I don’t and I didn’t, so that’s all there is to it really.”
Meow. Then Thompson ran over to Daily Variety to reiterate just how bad poor sweet Audrey totally sucks in her eyes — you know, just in case she isn’t already spinning in her grave.
Thompson said of the original film and Hepburn, “I find it chocolate-boxy, clunky and deeply theatrical. I don’t think that it’s a film. It’s the theater piece put onto film. It was Cecil Beaton’s designs and Rex Harrison that gave it its extraordinary quality. I don’t do Audrey Hepburn. I think that she’s a guy thing. I’m sure she was this charming lady, but I didn’t think she was a very good actress. It’s high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted because it’s a very fantastic part for a woman.”
“Fans of the original won’t want another one to be made — and honestly, one has to just cope with that. The original is incredibly long. The audience can expect less songs.”
Thompson’s cutting comments were published the day she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
For the record, Hepburn won an Oscar in 1953 for her role in Roman Holiday, and the original film version of My Fair Lady won its own statue in 1964.
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