Faye Dunaway has always been one of the great screen actresses who has been labeled as “difficult.” Another “difficult” actress was Katharine Hepburn, the spirited four-time Oscar winner whom Dunaway was set to play on Broadway in the one-woman play “Tea at Five.”
In Dunaway’s case, the label might not entirely be the product of sexism. That is, if a New York Post report is to be believed, with sources describing Dunaway’s allegedly erratic and “verbally abusive” behavior during rehearsals and backstage for “Tea at Five.”
The New York Post reported Thursday that Dunaway, 78, created such a “hostile” and “dangerous” environment backstage that she was fired from the production, which was having its pre-Broadway run in Boston.
During the last weekend in June, she also had “a full-on ‘Mommie Dearest’ meltdown,” sources told the Post. She reportedly demanded that staffers at the Huntington Theater in Boston get down on their hands and knees and scrub the floor of her dressing room. Before the July 10 performance, Dunaway slapped a crew member and threw items at production staff, who were trying to help her put on a wig, the Post added.
Dunaway’s alleged actions prompted the producers to cancel the performance minutes before curtain, the Post reported.
Producers said in a statement to the Post that they had “terminated their relationship” with Dunaway. The play, which was well received in Boston, will go to London in the spring recast with another actress, they said.
The Post said Dunaway was traveling in Europe and could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer also did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Dunaway rose to fame in the late 1960s, playing Depression-era outlaw Bonnie Parker in Arthur Penn’s groundbreaking crime saga “Bonnie and Clyde.” She also cut a glamorous and commanding figure in other 1960s and 1970s classics, including “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Chinatown,” and “Network,” for which she won her Academy Award.
But she may be best remembered for her over-the-top performance as a deranged, controlling Joan Crawford in the controversial 1981 film, “Mommie Dearest.” While Dunaway received mostly positive reviews for her performance at the time, the film is now remembered as a campy, exploitative biopic.
In subsequent years, Dunaway’s career in film, TV and onstage was often marked by misfires or controversies, as she developed a reputation for being demanding. To some, she was a dedicated, hard-working perfectionist, with Elia Kazan in a 1993 interview calling her “hungry, curious” and “brilliant,” but also “highly-strung” and “strong-willed.”
Her “Chinatown” director Roman Polanski told Rolling Stone upon release of the 1975 film that Dunaway was “a gigantic pain in the ass.” Of course, Polanski isn’t known as the most reliable source for character assessments.
The biggest condemnation may have come from Bette Davis, her co-star in the 1976 made-for-TV movie, “The Disappearance of Aimee.” Davis, who herself enjoyed a reputation for being “demanding,” told Johnny Carson on the “The Tonight Show” in 1988 that Dunaway was “totally impossible” to work with, “uncooperative” and “very unprofessional.”
In her autobiography, “Looking for Gatsby,” Dunaway pointed out that strong women often get labeled “difficult,” while difficult men are applauded for trying to do good work, the Baltimore Sun reported in a 1997 profile of Dunaway.
“Another way to say (difficult),” she wrote in her book, “is ‘perfectionist,’ you know. God is in the details. I do want to get it right.”
Dunaway was previously fired from a show in 1994. She was set to replace Glenn Close as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” the stage musical adaption of the 1950 film, for its Los Angeles run. But composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber and his associates announced that Dunaway couldn’t sing well enough to handle the vocally challenging role and closed the show, leaving the theater dark and debts of up to $4 million in ticket refunds, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Dunaway sued, claiming that Webber had damaged her reputation. The two reached a confidential settlement the following year, the New York Times said.
According to the Post report on production troubles for “Tea at Five,” Dunaway’s talent wasn’t in question. Rather it was her off-stage behavior, while preparing to play Hepburn.
In addition to allegedly “verbally abusing” crew members, Dunaway was frequently late for rehearsals, and refused to allow anyone — including the director and playwright — to look at her during rehearsals, sources told The Post. Dunaway also failed to learn her lines and was fed lines and blocking through an earpiece, the sources added.
More recently, Dunaway is probably best known as half of the unwitting partnership that announced the wrong name for the best picture winner at the 2017 Academy Awards. She and her “Bonnie and Clyde” co-star Warren Beatty received a standing ovation when they walked out onto the stage to announce the Best Picture winner, but they were handed the wrong envelope and Dunaway incorrectly announced that “La La Land,” instead of “Moonlight,” was the winner.
After more than 50 years in the business, Dunaway had become a social media sensation. She told NBC News anchor Lester Holt in an interview several weeks later she felt “very guilty” about the incident. She also felt stung by the mistake.
“Yeah, completely,” Dunaway said. “We were — I won’t say ‘deer in the headlight’ — but you are completely stunned. You don’t know what has happened.”
