Behind The Scenes: Breakfast At Tiffany's (Edwards, 1961) With Audrey Hepburn And George Peppard

It was a novella written by Truman Capote and we optioned the rights, took them into Paramount. So we started what is usually called in the entertainment industry development hell and started developing the screenplay. I love the screenplay but I've loved a lot of screenplays that haven't made it. So I wasn't foolish enough to make that a part of my consideration for doing it or not. I would have done it if I had to crawl all the way up the Walk of Fame. That was a big opportunity for me. Audrey was under contract to Paramount. We just thought she would be wonderful in it. Paramount didn't think she would play it because she was such a kind of sweet and proprietary kind of lady that they didn't think she would play a part where a woman gets $50 to go to the powder room. Certainly in her mind and understandably so. It was a big jump from the Capote Hollygo-Lightly to our film's Hollygo-Lightly and she just didn't know whether she could do that sort of thing. I thought she did a wonderful job. I liked it because she was very naive and it was like playing against that character and I think that's what it takes to play that part and get away with it you know. I just told her I thought she would be absolutely great and not to expect her to be the Hollygo-Lightly of Truman's book. I don't even want to own anything until I can find a place where new things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it's like. It's like Tiffany's. You mean the jewelry store? That's right. I'm crazy about Tiffany's. Truman Capote originally visualized Marilyn Monroe in the part and she probably would have been allowed to play the character as he had created her in the book but they unfortunately wouldn't let Audrey do that. You kind of would have expected Marilyn who you know was very sexy to she was kind of obvious for the part and so we thought we could do better and when Audrey said she would do it even though Paramount didn't think she would that's how we got her. I don't think that the majority of the audience in those days really ever thought of Audrey Hepburn as a hooker, as a call girl. I bet you they didn't even when it was over with they didn't even know so fifty dollars for the powder room so she was an escort lady. I found myself wishing that she could have done the part as written. People didn't know how earthy and how true to life Audrey was, how aware she was of whatever went on in the world. But she took something which was one way and turned it completely into something else up to the point that people forget what the film is really about. She was scared and happy and funny and delightful and spunky and emotional and solid. Audrey Hepburn was a gift from God I mean she's just the loveliest most gracious darling darling lady. And I think it's a film that she's become so identified with it's become a classic. When you talk of Audrey Hepburn the first thing you think of is Breakfast at Tiffany's. The first day of the film we were shooting the first scene in the movie which is when the taxi cab pulls up to the curb in front of Tiffany's at 57th and Fifth Avenue. Came the time to shoot and it was as though God said well I'm gonna give you a break now but for the rest of your career you're just gonna have to live off of this one. And nobody appeared no cars no people it was suddenly deserted with the sweep of his hand C.B. DeMille wiped out the whole traffic situation and we had our shot. It's all right really it is we're friends that's all we are friends aren't we. George had a great physical presence I think the two were I think it worked well for the two but he still had a lot of that innocence that I think made it attractive to her. We liked each other as human beings he admired me greatly I found out as a director and what I did in that film and I didn't want him in the movie. If you would ask me and I hope you don't that you know would I cast him now I doubt I would he just didn't have whatever it was that I wanted it wasn't my cup of tea and yet I loved it we had great time. Well I want to tell you I'd worked with him at the Actors Studio and we'd gotten along superbly I really loved him I mean he was divine to me and flirting with me and it was so good you know and I was so thrilled to be doing this film with him. Well he had been spoiled and he wanted things as he wanted them and he and I had dominated him a lot more in the script and he he didn't want to be seen in that condition. I'll tell you what Paul I am a very stylish girl. What are you doing? Writing a check don't look so bewildered surely you've noticed me writing checks before you're entitled to a vacation with pay. We wanted somebody who was no nonsense who could play that kind of you know strong subterranean sexual role which is what she does and I don't recall we ever had any problem getting her to play the part because she was a fan of Audrey's and it was a You're Holly's father? Her name ain't Holly. She was Lula Mae Barnes. Watched till she married me. I'm her husband Doc O'Lightly. What can you say about Buddy? Buddy is Buddy. He's an old vaudeville hoofer. It was a brilliant bit of casting. I don't know whether Buddy Epson was Blake's idea or whether it was the casting director's idea but you know I remember he came and read the scene that they play on the part. We just heard you know five lines and we all knew that was right. Mr. O'Lightly once again I must protest. If you don't stop that phonograph right this minute I'm going to call the police department. Well that's more better. In spite of the fact that Blake was a very good friend of Mickey Rooney's I don't think you would have cast Mickey Rooney to play a Japanese person. You'd had a real Japanese actor and I don't mind saying that at one point I wanted to replace him. I didn't really think it out and I'm not sure it would have changed my mind anyway and certainly at that time when I did it nobody criticized it. I was perfectly okay. Looking back I wish I had never done it. Not my favorite part though I do as I say I think Mickey's a wonderful, wonderful actor. I would give anything to be able to recast it but it's there and onward and upward. So my darling friend I have tonight made a very serious decision. And what is that? No longer will I play the field. Congratulations. The field stinks both economically and socially. Audrey and I specifically never had a disagreement that I can remember. People would advise Audrey and we would rehearse one night and she'd come back the next day and do something totally different and I finally took her aside and said hey there's only one director. He may not be the best but that's what you got and you either go along with what we agree on together or you got to get another director and that changed right then and she relied on me from that moment on. It was easy to spot what she was doing and she was some kind of spectacular lady. You drink? Yeah. I'll buy a drink. Okay. George Axelrod wrote the brilliant script but the cocktail party was pure Blake Edwards. He called me one day and he said I'm going over to the set because I'm going to do this crazy party sequence and I'm just going to play around and see what I can use. The script itself didn't delineate that much in terms of party shenanigans and that meant that I was going to have to invent it. But we just walked around seeing what kind of crazy madness we could create. They had the one thing where he was on the floor crawling to get the telephone that was ringing that was in a suitcase you know things like that. Actually in the party sequence a lot of it was choreographed I think as they went along. And I ordered up champagne and we had a party and I told him that I got him around and I said you know now you're going to help me out see if you can come up with stuff. And knowing actors and everybody was going to come up with something at that point and did and out of that I selected a lot of stuff that led me into a lot of stuff that I thought was fun and creative. I remember that he would walk by me and he'd say what are what am I going to do with you? And about the second or third day he comes behind he said I know. He said you're always laughing so I'm going to put you in front of a mirror and you can laugh your head off. Then he dreamed up a crazy thing with another actor and he said why don't you two I'm going to do a big close-up and you two be arguing. He didn't tell us what about and in the middle of our argument he pulls up the patch and didn't need it so it was just kind of a crazy moment. And then oh two or three days later he said you know by now I think she might have a crying jag. I said yeah and he said okay go for it. And we really just had a party. Had it been otherwise I think it would have taken two weeks and it didn't take anything like that. Well I was really quite amazed that she was able to pull that off. I didn't know she sang nobody knew. When I saw the film for the first time with an audience we were in preview and the head of the company then said well I'll tell you one thing we can get rid of that song. Fortunately Audrey stood and said over my dead body. One of my favorite scenes is the last scene you know with the cat. Boy does that cat smell. Get that cat wet and that's not easy when you've got the lights pouring down on you and you can hardly breathe anyway and then you bring the cat in and she's got it in the rain and right up her nose. It was awful. What makes it still an important movie is I think it's the romanticism of the film and the relationship and when Audrey is the most vulnerable and when George Pephard talks or when she's going to run away that last scene in the taxi and then when she goes and finds the cat and they're all hugging in the rain. I'm an old romantic I guess but that's that's my favorite part of the picture. It just gets into your soul gets into your heart may even get into your tears. I don't think there would be anyone who could ever follow Audrey Hepburn in any role because I mean she was unique. She always had a spark of humor and able to deliver that kind of kooky little attitude but it's a movie everybody can identify with. I think a lot of people have that kookiness whether they let it show or not you know. I think a lot of people wanted to be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Because she had a way of showing us who she really was. She really made you look into her soul and you see it whether she played a princess or a nun or a flower girl or Holly Golightly. She just had a grace and a beauty and a charm that I just I can't think of anyone else like her and yet with it there was a sweetness and a vulnerability. She was just delightful. What was she really like and the lovely answer is that she really was like what you saw on the screen. She really was that way. I think that movie was made like a classic. I really think that everything Blake does becomes a classic. I got real lucky. I like to think that I added a lot to those things like the party. That certainly wasn't written the way I shot it and so we complemented each other. Everyone kind of. I think at the end of the day the picture is famous not so much because of what Audrey was as a human being but because she represented something that I think women care about. It's kind of movies like they don't make anymore. I think that's part of magic for today as well and we should make more films like that. Don't you just love it? Love what? Tiffany's. Tiffany's came into existence in 1837 with a young man from Connecticut Charles Lewis Tiffany whose family was in the dry goods and cotton business in Connecticut and the first day's receipts in September of that year when they opened at the end of September were a wonderful $4.95. Their first store was down at 259 Broadway. They have moved six times as society moved uptown. Tiffany moved uptown and they relocated at the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street in 1940. Isn't it wonderful? Do you see what I mean how nothing bad could have happened to you in a place like this? It isn't that I give a hoot about jewelry except diamonds of course. Charles Lewis Tiffany knew that the diamonds were very much a symbol of his company and so when this great canary yellow diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1877 he bought it and it was sent to Paris to be cut. And then it was cut to 128.54 carats with 90 facets to maximize its brilliance. It's a canary colored diamond and at the time it was the largest canary diamond in existence. It measures one inch by one inch and it has wonderful brilliance. There are only two people who have ever worn the Tiffany diamond and of course Audrey Hepburn was one of those two people at the time of the filming of Breakfast at Tiffany and they're very charming photographs of her looking very happy to be wearing you know the most famous famous American diamond. No I'm gonna buy you a present. You bought me one a typewriter ribbon and it brought me luck. All right but Tiffany's can be pretty expensive. I've got my check and ten dollars. Oh I wouldn't let you cash a check but a present for ten dollars or under that I'll accept. Of course I don't exactly know what we're going to find at Tiffany's for ten dollars. The Tiffany setting has become the traditional setting for engagement rings because it does maximize the brilliance of the stone. You can see into the stone from underneath it holds the stone away from the setting and it makes it it to me it makes it more beautiful. Now it's the standard setting for a diamond the six-prong setting but that was devised by Mr. Tiffany and his gemologist in 1887 and presented to the world before that diamonds were set in what were called crown settings which set them rather low and very little light got into them. The facets as so to speak of Tiffany's talents and adventures in the world are very many and of course Tiffany has been very associated with the presidents of the United States and the government in Washington. Abraham Lincoln was one of our clients. President Grant was one of our clients right up to John F Kennedy. In the late 19th century the U.S. government realized that they wanted to update the great seal of the United States and James Whitehouse who was an engraver for Tiffany's redesigned the great seal of the United States. Do you think Tiffany's would really engrave it for us? I mean you don't think they would feel it was beneath them or anything like that? Well it is rather unusual madam but I think you'll find that Tiffany's is very understanding. If you will tell me what initials you would like I think we could have something ready for you in the morning. Didn't I tell you this is a lovely place? Everyone thinks of Tiffany as an American institution and very much their Tiffany and company that it's not my Tiffany it's not our Tiffany and company no it's the American people's institution it's their Tiffany and company and because it has had its hand in so many of the events and of the United States and still does today. Since Tiffany was one of the largest silver makers in this country a lot of the sports enthusiasts those who sponsored races etc came to Tiffany's such as in the 1850s early 1860s. Today we we make the Super Bowl trophy the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy since 1967 and and the NBA trophy and a NASCAR and of course the World Series let's not forget that the World Series trophy. Someone said one day what's Tiffany about when our wonderful publicist the great fashion empresario Eleanor Lambert was standing next to me and she said it's fun to dream that's what it's about it's fun to dream it's romantic to dream that's what Tiffany is about.