LEE
REMICK LONGING TO
BROADEN HER ROLES
by Vernon Scott
The Patriot Ledger
November 26, 1984
Within the breast of every snow goddess seethes the raging passions of
a tigress, says snow goddess Lee Remick.
Remick is a member of that sorority of movie stars whose demeanor is impeccably ladylike, aloof, unattainable and everlastingly cool.
She is one of the last of such screen aristocrats, a line that included Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews.
A veteran of some 50 feature films and TV movies, Lee stars tonight in the movie Rear View Mirror, playing a kidnap victim.
Once more she will be seen as a well-bred woman in peril, a role with which she is thoroughly familiar.
“I’ve never really had an opportunity to play down and dirty,” Lee said, radiating a smile. “I’d love to play a part like that. But no one ever asks.”
Her physical appearance strongly suggests Lee is prim and proper. She spent a decade in London with her English husband, William Gowans, which served to heighten her aura of hauteur.
Remick acknowledged in an interview that she is cast in the same roles that befell Kelly, Shearer and Hepburn. Then she added with a twinkle, “None of us has overdeveloped bosoms, which, I gather, also is a hallmark of a certain class of women.”
Rarely has a bead of perspiration appeared on her lovely brow. Nor has she been cast in parts that fall to Sissy Spacek or, say, Rita Moreno.
“You can‘t tell a woman’s character by the way she looks,” Lee said. “It’s what’s underneath that counts. The so-called snow princesses can be exploding volcanoes below the surface…I don’t believe the cover says a great deal about the contents.
“Tall, aristocratic, glacial women are boring to play. I’d really love to play someone a little bit trashy. When I’m cast as a nymphomaniac – as I was in The Detective with Frank Sinatra – she is usually high class.
“And I’ve played some elegant bitches, but they’re quite different from trashy bitches.
“The role I’d most like to play is Jean Harris, who ran the private school for girls and who was convicted of killing Dr. Hy Tarnower. She fascinates me because she was everything she didn’t seem to be.
“Jean
Harris is an intelligent, disciplined woman with strong views. But underneath
it all she was a woman driven by her passion for a man, which proves again
women should never be judged by appearances.”