Reading Todd McCarthy’s in-depth biography of Howard Hawks, and there is a whole section on how Hawks handled Hayworth on Only Angels Have Wings<\/i>, her first big role. She happened to have a sexy body – but she didn’t feel sexy, and couldn’t “act” sexy. She was no Marilyn Monroe who knew how to turn that on. Hayworth was shy, and psychologically damaged. She also was a very new actress, and this was her biggest part she had ever had. She was stiff as a board at first. She couldn’t do what Hawks asked her to do. He would have to “trick” her. He told her where to go, how to stand – and then made sure that the costume designer had given her a bodacious dress. <\/p>\n
For example: she was in that flowy dress with the flowing V-neck. And Hawks said to her, “When you come into the room, close the door behind you, and then lean against the closed door, with your arms behind your back.” And … you know what? Rita Hayworth does exactly what he asks – you can see it in the film – and Hawks is right. The dress does 90% of the work for her. The pose does the final 10%. If he had said to Hayworth, “Okay, so walk into the room and be really sexy” – Hayworth would have been shy and awkward. By giving her very specific (and indirect) direction – he got her to do just what he wanted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reading Todd McCarthy’s in-depth biography of Howard Hawks, and there is a whole section on how Hawks handled Hayworth on Only Angels Have Wings, her first big role. She happened to have a sexy body – but she didn’t feel … Continue reading