“I don’t want you for this part,” director George Cukor told Rosalind Russell when she came to test for the part of Sylvia in The Women (1939). Cukor wanted his friend Ilsa Chase who had originated the role on stage. Russell told him that was fine but she was going to do her best anyway. “I played it as drawing-room comedy, and then I played it more realistically, and then I played it flat out, in a very exaggerated style,” she explained. The next day she got a call from Cukor that she had the part. She was ecstatic until filming began and she learned that he wanted her to play the part in the exaggerated style she did in her test. “Mr. Cukor, I can’t do that, the critics will murder me,” she begged him. But Cukor insisted that she “just be ridiculous” so she was. “He was one hundred-precent right,” she recalled. “I was frightened to death, but from then on, I did what he said, and everything that came to me from The Women—namely, my reputation as a comedienne—I owe to George.” 🌟For more Old Hollywood gems, check out my book, THIS WAS HOLLYWOOD. Available wherever you buy your books (LINK IN BIO)!!🌟 #rosalindrussell #movies