Wendy Smith, in , the encyclopedic book about the Group Theatre, describes the moment: "The ideas Clurman propounded were intoxicating, but not everyone was convinced. An oft-told story concerns a pretty young understudy who attended a few meetings with her friend Eunice Stoddard. Asked what she thought of the Group Idea, she replied, ‘This may be all right for you people, if you want it, but you see, I’m going to be a star.
’ Then, as always, Katharine Hepburn knew what she wanted." It is not that her goals were better than theirs. They were as successful, eventually, as it was possible for them to be.
It is that “know thyself” is one of the most important qualities an actor can ever have. While rehearsing for , it became quickly apparent (to Hawks, to Grant, and to Hepburn herself) that she was in a bit over her head. She suffered beautifully as an actress -- had the Oscar to prove it.
But Susan Vance, the wacky insane heiress of , was daunting to this seemingly undaunted actress. Cary Grant, whose sensibility was naturally comedic, had no problem submitting to the screwball nature of the thing. She was telegraphing to the audience, “I know that I’m in a comedy.
Watch me be funny,” And it wasn’t working. In a sense, she was condescending to the material. Not out of any malice, but out of insecurity.
She was used to drama with a capital D after all. Grant was very close to Hepburn, so he was able to speak frankly to her. He said, “Listen, dear, every time I fall, I am just going to look more and more depressed.
” Meaning: we don’t have to “act” how funny it is that I just fell on my ass. What is funny in the moment is how embarrassed I am, how devastated I am that once again I look so foolish. But Hepburn still wasn’t quite clicking in to the energy of the thing.
Howard Hawks understood the problem and said later, “I tried to explain to her that the great clowns, Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, simply weren’t out there making funny faces, they were serious, sad, solemn, and the humor sprang from what happened to them … Cary understood this at once, Katie didn’t.” [excerpted from Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood , by Todd McCarthy] So Hawks enlisted the services of a friend, Walter Catlett – an old vaudevillian warhorse who had major comedic chops. Hawks showed some of the rushes to Catlett, and Catlett immediately grasped what the problem was in Hepburn’s performance.
Hawks wanted Catlett to talk with her about it, but Catlett hesitated. He said he would “coach” Hepburn, but only if Hawks set it up with her beforehand. Hawks set up a rehearsal with Cary Grant, Hepburn, and Catlett.
And here is the genius of Hepburn. Here is, for me, the reason that her acting and her work ethic touches me so much: Catlett, during this rehearsal, read through some scenes with Cary Grant, with Catlett playing Hepburn’s part. He was basically showing her how to do it.
So many other actresses would balk at such interference. Within 2 or 3 exchanges between Catlett and Grant, the light-bulb went on over Hepburn’s head. “Walter played a whole scene of hers out with Cary Grant, played it with every mannerism of hers, very serious, and she was entranced.
She said, ‘You have to create a part for him in the picture.’ And I did.” Catlett played the buffoonish sheriff of the town who puts everybody in jail at the end, before being bamboozled by Susan to let them all out.
What I love about this anecdote was that Hepburn, a huge star, realized where she was lacking. She was still learning, and still open to learning. She could have been completely resentful of the “interference” of someone like Catlett, showing HER, the Oscar-winner how to play the scene.
She watched, agog, soaking it up, pores open, mind open … and look at the result. was not a hit at the time, but history has obviously vindicated everyone involved. The film is a classic.
Hepburn allowed herself to be in the position of student – and she allowed people who “knew better”, people like Hawks, and Grant, and Catlett – to show her the way. This is a true survival instinct at work.
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