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Brigitte Bardot, Histoires extraordinaires (UK/US: Spirits of the Dead), France-Italy, 1967. Edgar Allen Poe viewed by Federico Fellini, Roger Vadim and (replacing Orson Welles) Louis Malle. “Well, of course, we need stars,” said Malle. “Any stars!” For his William Wilson episode, he wanted the Brazilian model, “very beautiful, very enigmatic – unknown and the producers did not want her.” What about Bardot? Sure, why not? “I tried to do what I could – putting her in a dark wig and so on. But it was terrible casting, unforgivable. But somehow the casting of [Alain] Delon worked – because the anger he had against me served the character – and I made sure I kept him angry all the way through…. probably the most difficult actor I ever worked with.” Not so much terrible but plain stupid casting… as had already been proved in Amours célèbres in 1961, Bardot and Delon had no chemistry whatsoever. Each one simply tried to be prettier than the other.
- Jill Ireland, Città violenta (UK: Violent City; US: The Family), Italy-France, 1969. As a switch from his spaghetti West, Rome director Sergio Sollima tried an urban thriller. Quentin Tarantino called it a re-hash of Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past. Replacing 1947’s Jane Greer-Robert Mitchum with Florinda Bolkan-Tony Musante or Tate-Jon Voight. Until Bronson became the betrayed hit-man, inevitably insisting on his wife… as his double-crosser. The Bronsons came as a pair.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2