Rita Hayworth | Orson Welles | BIG RED by Jerome Charyn
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- čas přidán 27. 12. 2022
- It's always a pleasure to chat with novelist Jerome Charyn. We talk about his latest novel, Big Red, the fictionalized look at the turbulent marriage of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. I reviewed the book earlier this year on my blog and it's a honor to get to discuss the book with this distinguished author.
comicsgrinder.com/2022/09/28/...
BIG RED is published by Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company.
wwnorton.com/books/9781324091332
Jerome Charyn: www.jeromecharyn.com/ - Zábava
Another excellent interview. Bravo!
Thank you!
Jerome Charyn is essentially describing Welles as Unicron. His final role in Transformers The Movie.
Excellent observation! Thanks for your comment. Anything larger-than-life and there's a good chance it would have fit Orson Welles.
Thank you for the interview. I do disagree with Charyn on Rita’s transformation for The Lady From Shanghai. I believe it was necessary to break Rita out of her Gilda/musical mold, or else how would we have been able to see her as a true femme fatale? Fifty-five minutes of the movie was edited out, perhaps the additional film would have made for a less confusing plot. Either way the movie has stood the test of time and has just celebrated its 75th anniversary premiere, on December 24th.
I really appreciate your thoughtful comments, Emily. Rita Hayworth's standing with the public, her box office draw, had everything to do with her being a sex symbol and that trademark flaming red mane of hair of hers. She was also a first-rate dancer and she certainly had acting chops. What I get from what Jerome is saying in the interview is that The Lady from Shanghai had every chance of being a popular hit with the public had Welles simply left her look/brand alone. The movie itself could have had all the Welles touches intact but he took it too far by chopping down Rita's locks and dying them blonde. In the make-or-break world of Hollywood, especially back then in the 1940s, that was totally playing with fire.
@@comicsgrinder I spoke with Jerome and he agrees with you 100%. If it were a hit, both of their lives would have improved. Instead it was close to fatal. I think RIta would have needed a different kind of film to show off Meryl Streep chops. (That's me speaking, not Jerome - haha.) Lenore (JC's wife)
@@SQAE How true. It seems to me that Rita could have done whatever she put her mind to given the opportunity. She had the skills to pursue acting at a higher level. Both Rita and Orson, so talented and so young, but not farsighted enough. Glad to get your comments here, Lenore! Happy New Year!
@Henry Chamberlain Jerome responds: "Imagine the same performance with Rita's iconic red hair, would there really have been a difference and the proof of it is that he had a whole bunch of photographers attend the ceremonial cutting of her hair, which made it a thousand times worse (says Jerome). Imagine her in the first scene, sitting in the carriage with her red hair, it would have been far more powerful. She would have been a true siren. She wouldn't have had to say a word."
@@LenoreRiegel To turn it into a performance like that with photographers documenting the haircut! Wow.