News broke that Rooney Mara will bring Audrey Hepburn to life in a biopic for Apple from director Luca Guadagnino. According to Deadline, Mara will also produce the project. As exciting as this is for Guadagnino and Mara, I have my reservations, mainly because tackling the life of Audrey Hepburn with her grace and history isn’t exactly an easy thing.
Hepburn became a household name for a number of movies. Whether it was My Fair Lady or Roman Holiday or even the 1954 version of Sabrina, fans all have their favorites, and she’s up there in “icon” status with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. All this to say that Audrey Hepburn is beloved and rightfully so. Born in Ixelles, Brussels, she grew up in the Netherlands during World War II when it was under German occupation and had to change her name to sound less English. From there, she studied ballet and rose from a chorus girl in the West End to end up the onscreen darling we know to her to be.
So, a movie about Audrey Hepburn’s life would be interesting, but it also comes with a history.
Audrey deserves the best
I grew up in an Audrey-loving household. My mother’s favorite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and that love was passed on to me. She’s my favorite and the one I love the most, and I don’t want another movie like The Audrey Hepburn Story happening. (If you have not seen it, don’t. It’s bad.) While I know that Rooney Mara looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn and is a brilliant actress in her own right, I still have the right to be nervous.
Hepburn means a lot to people and for good reason. She was a beautiful person inside and out, dedicating her free time to her humanitarian work outside of bringing so many of us joy with her movies. And after the pain of The Audrey Hepburn Story, the idea of making any kind of biopic of her should worry fans. We love her, and tanking her name just to make a movie that will bring in fans isn’t appealing.
Hepburn dedicated her life to her humanitarian work, and I hope that the movie explores that and gives Audrey the time and exploration of her life that she actually deserves. Would I be excited for this had I not been “gifted” The Audrey Hepburn Story because someone knew I loved her? Yes, probably.
But until I know exactly what Guadgnino has in store for Hepburn’s life, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic about it because Mara is incredibly talented and, as I said before, does resemble Audrey Hepburn a bit. I just want them to give Hepburn the biopic that she deserves and not one that will just make them money or get them Oscar recognition.
(image: Paramount Pictures)
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