What movies should Miss Dunaway have done?

I think she'd have been interesting in Coming Home. As much as I love Jane Fonda, I just don't enjoy her work in this movie.

She could have played Susan Sarandon's role in Pretty Baby.

I'd like to see if she would have blossomed in films by Woody Allen (imagine Dunaway and Keaton as sisters in Interiors) and Robert Altman.

Dunaway would have nailed Theresa in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. She'd have won a second consecutive Oscar for it.

She should have done "Cat Ballou."

She should have done "Thelma and Louise" with Amy Irving.

I can see her in a remake of "Carnival."

re Julia. This was a prestige project and actors would have done anything for Fred Zinnemann.

Miss Dunaway apparently wouldn't do it though r6

I read a pretty much little known Meryl was flown to London to audition for Julia since they wanted an unknown. Then suddenly Redgrave was signed and Streep was given the small supporting role. (which she said she spent most of the time worrying about her bad her wig looked. Zinneman later sent her a letter of apology saying he was sorry that he made her make her film debut in what he now agreed was a bad wig.)

Imagine her in Liv Ullman's role in Autumn Sonata as Ingrid Bergman's daughter. She'd have been superb if it had been shot in English.

R2 she was too beautiful. I could have seen her in a lot of Jane Fonda’s roles, though.

Lassie Come Home as Lassie

Any Shannon Tweed “Erotic Film” on Skinmax

Any role that required a non-talent cunt with no class and a tendency to over act while smelling like rotted pussy.

She could have played the Sharon Stone role in catwoman.

Maybe Anna in “Anna” (1987) but they probably couldn’t have afforded her. Or maybe they could, she was making “barfly” around that time. I agree that she and Jane Fonda were pretty much interchangeable throughout their careers. Even though it’s a lousy film, the thought of dunaway in “monster-in-law” is interesting.

She’s very good in biopics like “mommie dearest” and “puzzle of a downfall child” and “Gia” so I wonder what she could have done with “lady sings the blues” if she could only master the singing part.

Goldie Hawn's role in The First Wives Club.

Faye in The China Syndrome It's better than Network where Fayne had a 1 dimensional role.

The Kelly McGillis roles in "Witness" and "Top Gun"

The Helena Bonham-Carter role in "A Room with a View"

The Molly Ringwald role in "Pretty in Pink"

[quote] The Molly Ringwald role in "Pretty in Pink"

She didn’t have the range.

She could have sent up her image further in “serial mom”

The mother in The Exorcist

Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Aurora in "Terms Of Endearment"

I think she would have been great in Looking For Mr. Goodbar

Beth in Ordinary People

"Buck wouldn't have BEEN in the hospital, DAMN IT!"

Mame

Faye in Terms of Endearment? Jesus, it’s not a horror film.

Crystal in showgirls

Aibileen in "The Help"

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important."

Lursa or B'Etor in "Star Trek: Generations."

It’s a damn shame she turned down the role of Princess Leia from ‘StarWars”. Mainly because she is still living.

I can see her in some of Ellen Burstyn's 70s roles partly because I hate Burstyn and her tin voice. Imagine Faye doing Resurrection or even Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

She should have played the Beverly D'Angelo character in Vacation as a change of pace.

[quote]Aurora in "Terms Of Endearment"

"Don't fuck with me, fellas! Give my daughter the shot!!"

Although I loved Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point, Faye could have been great in that role as well.

1969: They Shoot Horse, Don't They?

1971: Klute

1973: The Exorcist

1979: The China Syndrome

1987: Fatal Attraction

1988: Dangerous Liaisons

1997: Afterglow

2000: Requiem For A Dream

2001: In The Bedroom

2007: Away From Her

[quote]1973: The Exorcist

“I’m not mad at you, Regan. I’m mad at the vomit!”

To Pazuzu: “I’ve fought worse monsters than you for years in Hollywood!”

Gidget.

Breezy (all respect to Miss Kay Lenz)

Dangerous Liaisons is not a great movie on paper, but of course she would have brought the beauty and the RAGE. Dunaway would slay that part. She would have been great in Fatal Attraction if Michael Douglass left his wife.

Faye could have done some of Kathleen Turner's roles. But nobody wants to give up Kathleen Turner.

I think Faye was great in Don Juan De Marco to be honest.

And Anne of Avonlea. Ha.

Faye Dunaway is not a cold actress. Jane Fonda is. But Faye is harder to cast because it's severe up in those cheekbones. She was so very beautiful and aristocratic looking for a very long time. Fonda looks like Barbara Walters or some Texas Matron, like Anne Bass.

Faye would have most spectacular and moving in The Turning Pointe. Bancroft looks the part, but really is a bit too arch. She makes Faye seem like Sally Field.

If done 20 or more years ago, Faye would have been a divine Callas or The Tony Palmer version of later in life Margot Fonteyn. Now, that's a hell of a story. INsanely compelling. The perfect exterior and what a strange fucking life.

One role she should have done: Caroline Hubbard in the 2010 TV remake of "Murder on the Orient Express" with David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Barbara Hershey just didn't cut it. You need a diva - Lauren Bacall was a diva, Michelle Pfeiffer can be a diva is she wants to. Hershey - no.

Diane already won an Oscar for it, r2, and don't say she didn't.

Diane Keaton is astounding and irreplaceable in Goodbar. The End.

Miss Dunaway is just stunningly beautiful in The Towering Inferno.

She doesn't have much of a part but it was the peak of her beauty. The AMC backstory says Jennifer Jones got made at her for taking too long in makeup....I say let the woman apply the makeup as long as she wants. Her hair, her complexion, every contour of her face is just perfection.

Disaster movies aren't about the acting, they're about the visuals and the suspense. All Faye had to do was look like a beautiful, glamorous movie star...

[quote]Disaster movies aren't about the acting, they're about the visuals and the suspense.

The early ones had some great performances. The Poseidon Adventure cast is almost uniformly good. Maureen Stapleton is heartbreaking in Airport. Then they sort of became about special effects as you say.

Maureen Stapleton is heartbreaking in everything. One of the most over rated actresses of all time. She was always on the verge of breaking down or falling down or having a drink. Her particular kind of warm sad fleeting smile. A quavering voice even when showing strength. Never bad and never much different. Never mix, never worry.

The original Airport was a prestige film because of the bestselling book (like The High & the Mighty before it). Inferno was also a prestige film because they just decided it was going to be after the two studios combined to make it. I mean c'mon, Newman, McQueen, and Dunaway?

make that McQueen, Newman, Dunaway r42 and William Holden a bit lower.

Oddest credits ever!

And for the Golden Age contingent, Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones were upscale.

Merideth Baxter Birney turned down the Susan Blakely role. (I'm sure she blames David Birney)

Mrs. Van Daan in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

and...

Sunset Blvd

She would have been great in the Jane Fonda role in Monster-In-Law!

A Cruella for the Ages.

She should have been cast in her dream role: Daisy in The Great Gatsby. I love Mia Farrow and she's gorgeous in the film, but I think Faye might have made Daisy a bit less flighty.

I also wish she'd worked with Hitchcock and starred in Family Plot instead of Karen Black.

[quote]Mrs. Van Daan in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

You forget she did the "Jew Running From The Nazis" thing in Voyage of the Damned.

Good choices, R51.

Our favorite Youtuber, Be Kind Rewind - had this to say about Karen Black tonight:

Dawson's 50 Load Weekend.

Reds. Diane Keaton is too contemporary for period roles. Could also see Dunaway in any of the Nancy Meyers movies that Keaton or Streep did.

No. No. And No. r56. Diane was perfect for Reds. As it turned out. Warren Beatty was not remotely period either in that film. Nicholson and that old stuttering cow Stapleton did the heavy lifting. It was first and foremost an epic romance movie. That's what Beatty reduces all history to, always. Diane provided some of the most soulful moments captured on modern film in REDS.

Faye Dunaway was hard to cast after the 1970s. That's kind of the point. Still she screwed herself out of some decent parts. I think Dunaway has pretty good taste in what suits her. But not such good luck with films. Or life.

She turned down Norma Rae (as did Fonda, Clayburgh, Keaton, and Marsha Mason)

It would have been interesting to see if she could deglam herself and play a working class character.

I wonder why Faye turned it down. Fonda was producing her own stuff, Mason was newly married to Neil Simon and raising his daughters and they didn't think it was good for her to be away for the shoot. Keaton has said all the Annie Hall fame freaked her out and she was afraid to take roles and just "hid" in the ensemble of Woody Allen films. Don't know about Clayburgh but she was in demand then.

Faye on the other hand could have used a good role in 1979.

She should have done more theatre, and won a Tony.

She could have drawn on her impoverished Southern roots to play the widow in Places in the Heart.

Definitely NOT that TV pictcha [italic]The Disappearance of Aimee[/italic]

Dunaway and Raquel Welch should have teamed for a big screen adaptation of Cagney and Lacey.

Damages

the Norma Rae turn downs were due to salary. This is why the producers went with Field because she didn't need to be paid as much.

@r22, "Mame "

She was all set to go, but that damn Gary talked her out of it

R52

Then I’ll do it AGAIN AND BETTER THIS TIME…

Faye really grew up as poor white southern, so she could have hit Norma Rae out of the park.

Basic Instinct.

I can just imagine her during the interrogation scene.

“This ain’t my first time at the rodeo, fellas.” Then she blatantly spreads her legs wide and points her toes toward Jesus.

R67 but she doesn’t look it or act it. That’s what matters when casting.

Sissy Spacek is the only other actress of that time who has that “rural look”

[quote]Mrs. Van Daan in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

Anne, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the DRECK!

[quote]1987: Fatal Attraction

I’m not mad at you, Dan, I’m mad at the…wait a minute…I’m pretty fucking mad!”

Alien.

Aurora in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. She would have been more subtle than Shirley MacLaine. Though I love Shirley in this.

Terms of Endearment was made in 1983. No way was Faye Dunaway right for that. Nor would she play it. Shirley MacLaine was physic perfection in the role. She's pretty fucking amazing as Aurora. Why do people want to recast perfectly wonderful performances? It's a type of jerking off.

The Role that FAYE would have been perfect for Bree in KLUTE. But you all love FONDA so much - you would never suggest it. Jane is very good in it. She plays dead and neurotic well. As she would prove for the next 50 years. Snotty tears. FAYE would have done it different and better. She's never dead.

Some hilarious sequels, like "Dunstan Checks OUT"

What does “dead and neurotic” mean exactly?

I would have loved to see her work with Stanley Kubrick. Imagine her in The Shining instead of Shelley Duvall. A Robert Altman movie would've been great too.

R74, lighten the fuck up. This thread is speculative anyway.

Drunk so early R78?

Get back to your street corner, r79, before your pimp gets back.

Pimps and street corners? What year is it, 1985? You must be at least 80 years old R80!

I'm an independent contractor. You can contact me directly. I don't offer the boyfriend experience to ancient white men. Too much sour taste and loose skin. Just take your teeth out, kneel down and pay me my $500. You're welcome.

Faye should have played Evita. Oh, wait...

'Dunston Checks In Again'

she was attached to a remake of sweet smell of success in the 80s i believe, presumably in the Burt Lancaster part.

I wish Tarantino would write a juicy role for her.

Sack Lunch

Nurse Ratched might have been interesting for her but she had just done Chinatown the year before with Jack.

Diane Wiest (who is perfection)---Dunaway might have been good in that but probably not as funny.

She might have been good in Diane Wiest?

Diane Wiest was Nurse Ratched?

think that was referring to bullets over broadway.

oops yes r90 that's what I meant

Faye Dunaway was never an ingenue. That's her own quote. She was born mature. And then was old at 40. My observation.

She WOULD have been great in The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl was, as always being too cute about being the villain. Faye would have actually LOOKED the part and not been afraid to play the role. She's not exactly a laugh riot but she can deliver any line, funny or not. At her best she elevates anything she appears in. Streep just hogs the shit. She's a turd.

Dunaway would have been lovely in Bridges of Madison County too. She has the ability to portray a kind of hesitancy that doesn't require much dialogue. Faye is the actress who most resembles a great star of the past - even the silent screen.

Her vanity and cocaine use and mental instability are the main reasons her film career didn't progress beyond Mommy Dearest. She became hard to cast and look at. Fantastic in Barfly. Then she started the endless plastic surgeries. Going on for a long time now. Impossible to work with. She leaves an intriguing screen legacy. The End.

Billy Wilder wanted Dunaway and Dietrich to play daughter and mother in his final film, Fedora (1978), which would've been awesome to behold. Instead we got Marthe Keller and Hildegard Kneff, and American audiences said, "who and who?"

Sadly, Wilder's last film was "Buddy Buddy" (1981).

Dunaway should have embraced Mommie Dearest. People like Debra Winger and Edward Norton say it taught them how to act.

In her book she says it pains her when people like it.

Even in its initial release it got some great reviews. She was the runner up at the New York Film Critics association.

Her hatred of it only made it linger as a topic she wouldn't discuss.

Andrew Lloyd Weber really did her wrong. I can't believe Jon Cyher or Rex Smith (her co-stars) never spoke about it.

*Chanteuse* Hildegarde Knef, r93.

ALW is the devil. Faye might not have been able to sing the score as written - but neither could Glenn. They were both hired for the damn job. Not an easy one to get. Diahann Carroll did it in Toronto to raves - and the songs were transposed down for her. Cher was supposed to star in the Toronto production, and she's no soprano. She backed out.

Only Patti and Betty Buckley sang the songs as written. Patti was famously fired too. ALW got spooked by Faye I think, in whatever her problems with rehearsals. I still bet she would have be GRANDE.

It's not his greatest musical. Betty Buckley owns that score though. Don't kid yourself that Faye Dunaway can hit multiple Eb5s and the F5 major.

"Love means never having to say you're sorry>>>Sorry? You're so fucking sorry!"

Love Story meets The Craft

Did Cher rehearse at all or did she drop out before all that?

Dunaway was a victim of the ticket sales dropping after Close's final performance was announced. Seeing Close became the event. Weber was afraid poor box office in LA would tarnish the Broadway opening. So he blamed it on Faye's singing.

If it was all Faye's fault why not hire someone else? No. He closed it instead. It never really sold tickets in the US without Close in it. (not sure about London. It ran longer there and had a bunch of Normas.)

Miss Dunaway was supposed to do "Duet for One" with then-husband Terry O'Neill directing. But by the time the film went into production, neither she nor O'Neill were attached to the project. Miss Julie Andrews got the part.

Faye rejected the Ellen Burstyn part in "Requiem for a Dream." Maybe it hit a little too close to home.

Faye was also in the running to play Sable Scott Colby in "Dynasty" spin-off "The Colbys," but her asking price was too high. Stephanie Beacham accepted the part at an estimated $20,000 per episode.

Dorothy in ”The Wiz”

Wasn't Faye going to do Duet for One on Broadway too but dropped out of that also?

R101 now the Colbys or Dynasty she would have been perfect for. But she was still a “movie star” then.

Shes also totally humorless, so many of these comedic parts would not have worked for her, unless they were unintentional camp - but that’s what ruined her career to begin with.

A bug crushing movie would have made money - just Faye in expensive shoes stomping on palmetto bugs.

Jaws: the Revenge

Glamour girl, Faye should've done any one of those rural/farm films of the '80s--Places in the Heart, Country, The River, The Dollmaker, Bitter Harvest, etc., to show her versatility.

Not to take anything away from Cher's fine performance, but Faye would have been excellent as the mother in Mask.

Yes R99. Cher auditioned and rehearsed. She wanted to do it. The Toronto Production was a guaranteed success, in the new North York Ford Theatre that Showboat had such great success in. Directed by Trevor Nunn with Rex Smith as Joe Gillis. He was perfect. It was a great production. (yes, I was part of it)

It opened 26 years ago. When Cher was 50? She would have been (maybe) great and she trained to do it. Many less capable pop singers have taken Broadway roles since. But this was going to be a BIG deal. Toronto or not. Cher backs out of a lot of things. She had a lot of power back then.

Diahann Carroll did not get raves. Her vibrato was wobbly and she overplayed the part. At first. Close came closer. Because she played more levels to a part that required none. For a singing actress, Diahann Carroll delivered beautiful broken Norma vocals and FACE much better than Glenn. But Broadway was not going to line up for 60 year old black Norma. The Cher idea was to end on Broadway - just as Showboat did. After a year in Toronto. Can you imagine Cher spending a year in Toronto in 1995? Or now.

Betty Buckley was the greatest Norma of them all, as an actress and most supremely as THE vocalist. Her interpretations were nuanced and thrilling. She didn't need the bridge transposed down. Patti Lupone has a great voice - amazing in fact, but far too strident in tone for the vulnerable character. She made a lot of money and mouth out of her firing - but ALW was right not to go with her. It was a great humiliation to the greatest broadway star of the time, nonetheless.

Faye failed in some other way. No doubt in temperament and professionalism. It goes without saying that she is not a great Broadway singer. Far better than Streep though. And with better classical understanding than CHER. Cher sings from her throat - she could never sustain singing the score every night without frying her voice by the second week. Cher couldn't sing live for two hours. Not even in 1995. But yes, she did train and audition and in many ways would have been iconic in the part.

Did Cher rehearse with the rest of the cast? Did you hear her? How was she?

(great inside story! thanks r109)

Faye would have been fantastic in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Keaton's casting just doesn't work -- she's too likable and she doesn't convince as a member of that family. Faye would have brought a brittle neuroticism to the character that Keaton was incapable of.

Cher did not rehearse with the Toronto cast, as she auditioned earlier on in the process. And far more than auditioned. She was ready to go into rehearsals - more than once. They wanted her for L.A., then Broadway, - then finally she was willing to take over in the less stressful Toronto market. Yes I did hear her and she was quite glorious to be honest. Toned down her vibrato and lightened the timbre of her speaking and singing voice in a way that was still natural. Was taking lessons to utilize her very nice head voice and work a bit on her vowel sounds when singing. Cher has a bit too distinct vocal accent. She can fake something for a moment, but she had to do better than that. It was not so much about developing a character, but losing some of the CHER character of her singing. She couldn't sing the score as written - that was not so much an issue as her distrust that it was all a setup for personal failure. At a time when she was still hot in most ways. She wanted the challenge and potential acclaim and the role really appealed to her. ALW had offered the part to some other popular singers and well known entities. Because my role was part of the essential musical structure of the show - I did meet with Cher and hear her perform. Beyond that I can't say too much. Cher is not as collaborative or as nice as people would like to believe. But more talented and for sure hard working. She's not very smart about music in the way that most professional singers are.

This is not my account, but I know the majority of it to be true. Enjoy it, R110.

Faye is, and was always, a nightmare to work with. She wouldn’t have been any better in any of those films than the women who actually did them.

[quote] Pimps and street corners? What year is it, 1985? You must be at least 80 years old [R80]!

I'm an independent contractor. You can contact me directly. I don't offer the boyfriend experience to ancient white men. Too much sour taste and loose skin. Just take your teeth out, kneel down and pay me my $500. You're welcome.

A paragraph of FAIL.

ah so r112 they wanted her to replace Close in LA and replace Buckley on Broadway?

Toronto was in between those times? (not sure when Toronto opened.)

I always thought it was odd that Elaine Paige replace Buckley. She didn't have much of a US following and they needed a name to generate some publicity....even if the actress was less skilled a singer than Paige.

I answered as best I could R115. Toronto ran for under 2 years. Cher time is Cher time. Sunset BLVD was ALW biggest fuckup production ever. The show was not good enough on its own without a STAR beyond Broadway. That was his belief. He wanted a film star singer. Not a bad idea. So he fired Lupone from coming to New York. Hello Glenn. Faye?

But Betty Buckley came after Glenn and showed everyone how it was fucking DIVINE and DONE. She sings and acts the score to bliss in the few good moments of the play. Don't say Betty can't act or sing or both at once. She brought the house down with that final small decrescendo into crescendo while reaching forward - every time. At the end of a virtuosa 6 minute vocal performance. Her voice was in peak form. A marvel. And her body and countenance worked for the role of Norma Desmond. She wore it best.

Cher was in and out and in and out and all on her whimsy. She's always thought her worth was a bit more than it was. She lived in that time. No doubt she would have sold out the show - nowadays she could happily sign for 6 months with 3 shows off a week. That wasn't an option back in the better days when to succeed in a show you had to commit to bad reviews and nights. Cher doesn't acknowledge a bad night. She only suffers from wig problems or lip sync failures these days. She could never have sung a Broadway show 6 times a week. She kind of knows that. She wanted to try.

Elaine Paige, Buckley, Patti Lupone or Bernadette Peters will play a show for 2 years if the tickets sell. Sunset BLVD was no one's triumph. Though it may be thrown to Glenn Close, no one really believes that. Her interpretation of the role was just slightly worse than her singing. The show was a perceived hit and a minor failure. Lost money. Faye Dunaway couldn't have ruined it. Patti Lupone might have saved it!

Cher, like Streisand - was always just fucking around with the idea of seeing if she could do it. And thinking that you could do that over and over with the producers. And cast. And future. Very fragile ego. Hates failure and criticism. Can't decide. Streisand demands many musical changes. Cher thinks about the wigs. Talented, but nowhere near talented enough to be that fucking difficult. Both are kind of robotic performers when you think about it. No one will buy Betty Buckley's records - but watch her performance and hear her fucking sing!!! Streisand can't perform OR sing like that - Cher can't sing like that, but could have fucking done the damn show. Glenn Close should be embarrassed to have recorded a cast album. I'd rather hear Fayes.

The best is the best. This is a bad recording. Stick with it. It's a film scene on stage by one of the world's greatest singers. Never listen to Streisand's terrible version of this song again.

Rebecca in SOUNDER…

She’d have been a good shug in color blind casting of “the color purple”