But it ended up unintentionally drawing laughs instead of pathos, enshrining it as a camp classic.
“‘Heres some inside dirt,’ Liz Smith reported in her gossip column,” reads the excerpt.
She couldnt bring herself to carry through on the physical violence and rage.
Mara Hobel and Faye Dunaway in ‘Mommie Dearest’.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Every time Perry tried to film the scene, Faye drew back from thrashing the little girl."
“He called in Fayes stand-in and had her beat the dummy while Mara cried and sobbed off screen.
She said at last, Frank, you were absolutely right.
Joan Crawford.VCG Wilson/Bettmann
The scene had to be like that!”
Dunaway’s initial reluctance was largely due to her fears of utterly demonizing Crawford.
“It was very difficult to shoot,” technical advisor Jonathan Zimbert remembers in the book.
And so she held back.
It was more comical [on the set] than it exists [on-screen].
And she wouldnt do it, despite encouraging and encouraging and some more encouraging.
“It wasnt human and it wasnt me!
But for all the other shots it was me.
VCG Wilson/Bettmann
Dunaway’s instincts weren’t wrong.
With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classichits shelves on May 7.
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