How Bette Davis Lost Out on Gone With The Wind

How Bette Davis Lost Out on Gone With The Wind

By Michael Musto Mon., Aug. 15 2011 at 10:45 AM

In a Fringe Festival show called Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies, Jessica Sherr portrays the screen legend talking to her two Oscars in between indulging in flashback confrontations with various Hollywood moguls.

And this is how Sherr's version of Bette's version of not getting to play Scarlett O'Hara plays out:

First, Jack Warner wanted her to do the part, but only if she also played a lumberjack in a movie called God's Country.

Bette couldn't go through with that, clearly not too thrilled to wear plaid.

Then David O. Selznick took over and wanted Bette, but only in a deal whereby Errol Flynn would be her Rhett.

Again, Bette said "feh," this time because she felt Flynn gave you nothing to work with -- he just said his lines and that was it.

(Maybe after working with Richard Barthelmess and Lyle Talbot, she'd had enough.)

Whether all this is true or not, I'm glad Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable ultimately got to be Scarlett and Rhett.

And I'm glad Bette's fiery bitterness over the situation helped fuel her moxie for decades to come.

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Southern Dave

What Bette always said she told Jack Warner when he said if she accepted Flynn as Rhett she could play the part of Scarlett was:

"Yeah, and I'll bet it's a pip!"

David

Vivien was the one and only for that part. I read that Olivia de Havilland said Leigh gave so much to the role, she left a little of herself behind. With that & Streetcar, it's no wonder she went crazy.

Movielover

A better husband would have helped! I think when she was having difficulties it was too much work for Larry O. and he dumped her for another wife + a little Danny Kaye on the side.

BetteD

Tallulah should have been Scarlett, dah-ling.

Movielover

If Taloo coulda, then might as well have had Bette. Bette was great as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes, which...was first done by Taloo on the stage. I think Taloo was too sophisticated to play a gal hardly ever away from her home. She came from down South, but was always rich and traveled. Wasn't Scarlet more folksy, though spunky?

Rabbit

She could play Scarlett if she also played a lumberjack? LOL

Although I can't imagine anyone other than Vivien Leigh in the role, Bette was actually more like Scarlett as she was originally described in the book: "Not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm."

Davis also said "Feh" to Flynn when he was suggested for Elizabeth and Essex, but later said she had been wrong and had underestiimated him.

Movielover

Shocking! I thought Scarlet had to be a beauty and that's why they DIDN'T hire Bette, because Rhett is supposed to be so in love after all those years, and a plain Jane wouldn't do. Bette would have been great, like she was in Jezabel. Viv was fab and I think a book about her was called "Too Beautiful." Even so, I don't think Bette begrudged anyone their beauty. Unlike John Wayne who hated Rock Hudson for being so good looking!

Whorey Mary

Don't ever mention that KKK lovin', gay hatin', no-talent havin' John Wayne to me darlin'.

Movielover

He was also a draft dodger and his real name was Marion! Mary Ann.

Rob in Philly

She walks into the house at Tara and says, 'What a dump!"

mjm

actually the picture was called God's Country and the Woman and Bette screamed at Jack Warner that she wasn't going to do another goddamn b-movie after having a smash hit in The Petrified Forest. She fled to the UK after Alexander Korda (Merle Oberon's husband) offered her a deal and there was a big breach of contract case which she lost.

Cyberquill

I hear Ronald Reagan lost out on the Cary-Grant part in Arsenic and Old Lace and the Bogart part in Casablanca. Luckily for all of us, his bitterness over these situations helped fuel his moxie for decades to come, too.