sugarpuss wrote:There's a funny story in her biography that during the whole filming of Essex, he was making her miserable during the kissing scenes (he kept trying to make the kisses more "romantic", and she was repulsed because he had been drinking all night. She used to imagine that she was kissing Laurence Olivier instead.)pktrekgirl wrote:Well, except maybe The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. But that's really more because I can't help but think about what was going on behind the scenes on that film - she made Errol Flynn miserable - and that distracts me somewhat.
But other than that...I can't think of a single instance where I didn't care for her.
GAH!
Wow...Bette Davis and Errol Flynn have some VERY different remembrances of that film.
I mean, they could not BE any more different.
I highly doubt that Errol was aiming to make their kisses 'more romantic'....because by the end of that movie he was ready to kill her.
His version of the story is that she was making very explicit sexual overtures toward him..and when he 'passed on her kind offer', she got pissed off...and proceeded to make his life miserable for the rest of the film.
He is very detailed in his telling of the takes on that scene where Elizabeth slaps Essex. Seems she had a huge ring on her finger...and when she slapped him in the first few takes, she did it for real, physically hurting him in the process. I mean, she hit him HARD.
When he tried to approach her about it, she insisted she couldn't possibly play the scene unless she really did hit him, and told him that he would just have to suck it up and take it. He perceived this, pretty much, as something we would today call sexual harassment...and got really pissed himself.
Finally, after she did it a few times, he was so angry that he knew on the next take, if she whaled on him again, he'd hit her right back. As he walked forward in the scene, he is quite certain that his eyes were blazing in fury...and it was then that she finally backed off and decided not to press her luck.
No...this was not what you'd call an amiable working relationship!
Now, I can't speak about Bette Davis's side of things...but I do tend to believe Errol on this point....the reason being is because Errol, even in his autobiography, never went out of his way to make himself look good. In fact, when it came to himself, he was more often likely to tell white lies that made him look worse rather than better, mainly in an attempt to improve the story and make it funnier.
He never spared himself in his writings...and this is why I don't think he would have whitewashed this incident. He said they got on fine during The Sisters...but that she was really brutal during E&E.
Interesting counterpoint, don't you think???
Now I'll have to go and read Bette Davis' account!
