Audrey Hepburn, one of the great, classic actresses of Hollywood of the '50s and '60s, may have died in 1993, but she's alive and well in American pop culture.
Her name, and the 1961 film with which her face is most associated, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," came up in a conversation with a friend a couple of weeks ago, and coincidentally, a TV series' plot later that week involved three women dressed as Hepburn's character from "Tiffany's," Holly Golightly, robbing a bank with her trademark sunglasses hiding their identity.
This week, The Gap began airing a pretty cool TV commercial that takes a Hepburn dance sequence from her 1957 musical co-starring Fred Astaire, "Funny Face," and sets her moves to AC-DC's "Back in Black." The commercial is pushing the retailer's new line of skinny black pants. Hepburn's character, a Greenwich Village beatnik who becomes a Paris model, is wearing skinny black pants in the scene – obviously, it's a scene from the hip, beatnik part of the movie.
It's a hip ad, all right, not unlike ads in recent years that had John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and even Astaire himself, computer-copied into modern settings.
I used to love Hepburn's look in those classic films. I also truly appreciate the humanitarian work she did towards the end of her life. But because of her most famous film, I have a hard time with her image.
Now, let me say right upfront that I understand it's unfair to smear Hepburn with my concerns. She was just the star of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and probably had nothing to do with the other characters, their casting or the script. The screenplay by George Axelrod was based on a novella by Truman "In Cold Blood" Capote, and the movie was directed by Blake Edwards.
But the association for me is so strong that I can't think of Hepburn without thinking of Holly Golightly, then Mr. Yunioshi.
Who is Mr. Yunioshi? He was the creepy, salacious and bumbling Japanese man who lived upstairs from Holly Golightly in the film. A photographer and the building's superintendent, he was always yelling at Hepburn's character and begging Holly Golightly to come upstairs and pose for him. "Miss-uh Go-Right-Ree!" he calls down the stairwell.
The character has magnifying-glass spectacles, squints and mumbles with pronounced buck teeth. It's almost a WWII-era caricature of a "Jap" from a poster, comic book or cartoon, come to life. Only it's not 1942, it's 1961.
And, the character of Mr. Yunioshi was played by Mickey Rooney, the diminutive Caucasian movie star. Maybe it's because no Asian would agree to play the part. I can only hope.
The history of "Yellowface" – Caucasian actors playing Asian characters – had a long tradition in Hollywood, even up until the 1960s and '70s (including the most famous instance of all, David Carradine playing the half-Chinese character in the TV series "Kung Fu" that was originally supposed to be played by Bruce Lee, who came up with the idea for the show).
Here's a link to a clip from "Tiffany's" featuring one of the scenes with Mr. Yunioshi (requires Windows Media Player):
http://nikkeiview.com/multimedia/tiffany36.wmv
Here's a good article about the history of Yellowface:
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_yellow.html
And here's a column I wrote about other, even more recent, examples of racism in our culture:
http://nikkeiview.com/nv/archives03/020303.htm
But this wasn't just an example of letting a white actor play an Asian character. It was a broad and particularly nasty stereotype captured in a major motion picture featuring a cast of big name stars. It was a statement that said loudly, that this particular stereotype is (was) an acceptable way to portray Asians in America.
At least on the closing commentary on the Anniversary Edition of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," producer Richard Shepard admits, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie!"
That's good to know, but Rooney is there as part of the film's legacy forever, and I still end up associating its brutal racist depiction of Japanese – of me – with it, and with Hepburn's image. A lot of fans of the movie can dismiss or overlook the stereotyped character. Some even think it was a high point of the movie, that it added comedic elements. (Read the Amazon.com comments.)
When I was younger, I could squirm and chuckle along with it, but I can't stand to watch the movie anymore. And the old saw about "that's what it was like back then" doesn't fly with me, either. Imagine an African-American character in 1961 being satirized that way. Like I've already mentioned, Rooney's portrayal was a throwback to WWII depictions of Japanese – it was over the top, even for 1961.
So, Audrey, it's good to see you on TV commercials. Maybe I'll Netflix your other movies for a while, so I can accept you back in my heart again.
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Comments: 11
In truth, there a stereotypes about everyone in all genres of film.
I do not think that this film should be called racist.
The history of your young nation has many pratfalls. For the era, this was the gerealized norm...the constructed idea of what a "Jap" was to the still anglo-centric society of the USA.
Since the sexual revolution and human rights activism of the 1960's also influenced the breakdown of stereotyping-happened after this film...really Breakfast At Tiffany's is just a relic of times past. Those times may have been racist. But to the people who lived them, it was an underdeveloped part of intellectualization that was the cause of this sort of humor in films.
It still exists in variations.
Instead of pin-pointing a film-I say we use it as a stamp of times past-a marked moment that we can look back on with the notion that we are in a different world now.
That film also shows women as wives and social figures. Holly's character was about a woman who wanted to be more than society wanted her to be. For all women at that time, they were still housewives and arm candy.
Mickey Rooney was known for over-the top impersonations and his version of a camera-centric Japanese man with buck-teeth and horrendous sight was of the norm for this genre in film. Look at some of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's work.
Films that are from the 1960's era have an inordinate amount of sexual tension in its subject matter and its characters.
Gil, I just feel that there is humor even in some of the most assanine of impersonations and immitations of all racial groups. Black people make fun of white people all of the time and it is a standard part of most black comic's routines. Hispanic actors on television are usually portrayed as sensual, robust, and excellent dancers in movies. Japanese people are usually tourists with cameras around their neck and Chinese people own laundromats and their kids go to MIT. Heard this stupidity before? My point is that this stuff isn't going to change. We are all so different and I think we need to find new ways to relate and understand each other. Humor, even played out, tired acting like the "Rat Pack" and Mickey Rooney are all excellent mirrors for us to see, interact with, and identify with. It is good to remember that this is just one person's immitation-an actor from the 1940's and 1950's films-a child actor who grew up ina vaudeville family and never went to college-married at 18-grew up on a movie set-his vantage point. he is just a human being and so are you.
By the way-I love the photo with the hat.
In 2002, I was in Niigata and encountered a hotel open only to Japanese. For some reason, I accepted it. My money was good elsewhere.
Today, many Japanese think they live in the most civilized country in the world, where people treat each other a little better and work a little harder, and live a little cleaner than the rest of the world. And they are right.
For some reason I have never been able to watch the whole movie. It's run on teevee regularly and I have een bits and pices, but nevewr sat for the whole thing.
Now I'm glad I didn't. I suspect I am one of maybe 2% of Amewricans my age who doesn't find Rooney cute or charming in his regular bits and this would have been overkill.
well written Gil..
The 1961 closet was very deep and dark in the postmodern US. Capote's inclinations were costumed in Holly's desire to recreate herself from a runaway Texas bride into a chic bohemian. Her ambition mirrors Capote's journey from Mississippi to Manhattan.
It is interesting also to see how director Blake Edwards makes the Paul Varjak character a dispassionate boy toy whose upkeep is maintained by proper matron of society. The natural poetry of Capote's work was subverted by Hollywood's comedic formula that unfortunately included the derogatory stereotype of Mr. Yumioshi that critic Weiler dismissed as being "broadly exotic".
I still consider Audrey Hepburn a remarkable actor, and when I think of her best performances, I remember "The Children's Hour", "Two For the Road", and "Wait Until Dark".
Your reaction to the final part is understandable I really enjoyed reading this. I am relatively new to this site and just finding my way around. Really beautifully written piece