The Nun's Story

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US 1958, d Fred Zinnemann

Denied his stab at directing her in War and Peace, Fred Zinnemann would subsequently cast Hepburn in the title role of The Nun's Story, a film which - without her participation - would never have been made. No backers would touch the project - too much inherent controversy, too little commercial appeal - until, as Zinnemann recalled in his autobiography -

"When Audrey Hepburn said she wanted to do it, suddenly the studios became interested... there was at that time no star as incandescent. She was shy, coltish and intelligent; she looked delicate, but there was a hint of iron in the jaw line that signified a stubborn will. I thought she would be perfect and now, so did everyone else."