Audrey Hepburn played the main character, Eliza Doolittle, in the movie, My Fair Lady, directed by George Cukor and based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 Pygmalion. In my opinion, she proved victorious in this movie as she also does in many others. I have had a fascination with this remarkable woman for the past few years. I have collected several of her movies as well as other items with her picture on them. During her first years in Hollywood, she was different from the other actresses because she was a tall, very thin actress that spoke with an Anglo-Saxon accent. She was unlike the women of this time that carried a curvaceous physique. She changed the stereotype for actresses of her time. Therefore, I believe Audrey Hepburn was a wonderful candidate for the role of Eliza Dootlittle in My Fair Lady, despite the fact that I have read other Montage essays that erroneously claim she was only a beautiful face without any talent.
The first reason I believe she was she best actress to play this role is that, since she is dramatically transformed from a flower girl to a proper lady by none other than Henry Higgins, played by Rex Harrison, she makes a very believable Eliza Doolittle. Hepburn was beautiful but still convincing as a flower girl with dirt on her face and dressed in rags. She was even more beautiful and convincing as the very refined lady dressed in ball gowns that she becomes towards the end of the movie.
No other actress could play such a role in a movie where a character spoke with common street language and then speaks proper phonetics at the end. This is another reason why I believe Hepburn is a very believable Eliza. Although, I will say that there were voice-overs for her character that were sung by Marni Wilson, I see nothing wrong with the director doing this because he obviously knew that Hepburn was capable of singing, but she had some trouble with some of the songs especially in the higher register. I thought her spoken voice sounded good throughout the rest of the movie as well. She did superb acting as if she had a hard time pronouncing the words that Higgins made her recite continuously. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Therefore, I believe Audrey Hepburn was a perfect actress for My Fair Lady.
As you can see, I adore Audrey Hepburn for her portrayal as Eliza Doolittle in the movie, My Fair Lady. I found this movie to be entertaining, and I think that this is mostly due to her performance throughout the entirety of the movie. I think that the one and only, Audrey Hepburn portrayed Eliza beautifully. I would love to believe that I am her biggest fan!