CORE RESPONSE: Hepburn's Star Persona

In William A. Brown’s chapter “Audrey Hepburn: The Film Star as Event,” the author discusses the various facets leading to Audrey Hepburn’s rise to international stardom in the 1950s as well as the subtleties of her androgynous physicality as being a contributing factor to her universal appeal. Brown first describes the actress’s face as “an event” — which he later elaborates as being the result of a handful of political and social phenomena, namely “postwar Europe, the Marshall Plan, television, consumerism, fashion, the star system” (Brown 130, 140). Similar to Hepburn’s androgyny, Brown writes that “Hepburn emerges as having an ambiguous nationality” in her early films causing “various audiences” to “claim…her as ‘theirs’” (Brown 134).  Here, Brown’s observation reminds me of our study of Rudolph Valentino whose ethnic otherness contributed to his massive popularity as an early American sex symbol. While Rudolph had a distinct flair due to features like his tanned skin tone and Italian name, Brown argues that Hepburn was more of a blank slate that seems to have appeared “fully formed and from out of nowhere” (Brown 134). 

This sense of Hepburn falling from the sky renders the actress too with a unique kind of innocence - different than that of Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor in her physical appearance and the roles in her films. Brown describes her often boyish haircut as being “important in the transformation that she undergoes in her films, as she metamorphoses from little girl to independent woman,” thus reinforcing this sense of purity (Brown 139). Brown mentions how Hepburn’s “wholeness…becomes holiness” through “her association with holidays,” adding a layer of near sacredness to her celebrity (Brown 141). The product of Hepburn’s perceived innocence perhaps also contributes to her appeal to older men (Brown 137). The irony behind this persona - and undoubtedly one of the most profound contradictions in her star persona - is that Hepburn experienced horrific sights of World War II and her “‘European’ frailty” that was so alluring was also a byproduct of her starvation during the War (Brown 137).  

(Core post 3)