Audrey Hepburn stella di Hollywood

Audrey Hepburn had come a long way
from her early days as third chorus girl on the left in the line-up for a
1950 musical called Sauce Piquante at London’s Cambridge Theatre.

Her
take-home pay then was a modest £8 a week, but she had gone on to
become the toast of Broadway in Gigi, won an Oscar for her first big
Hollywood movie Roman Holiday, and played a string of other major roles
in films such as Breakfast At Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady.

In
short, she’d become a millionaire and a world star. But in private, she
lived a simple life with her husband, Italian psychiatrist Andrea
Dotti, and to her five-year-old son Luca she was just Mama.

Audrey Hepburn had become a millionaire and a
world star. But in private, she lived a simple life with her husband and
to her five-year-old son Luca she was just Mama

‘So imagine my surprise,’
recalls Luca, now 43, ‘when I saw her on TV kissing a strange man. I
didn’t know she was an actress. I didn’t even know what an actress was.
All I knew was that Mama was doing something I was sure was wrong. I ran
to my father and told him what I’d seen. “You must be very upset,” I
said.

'But he just laughed and swept me up in his arms. “Don’t worry,” he told me. “Your mother is just acting.”

I didn’t understand, but if Papa didn’t mind, it must be all right. And
as I grew older I realised why I’d been so confused – the real Mama who
took me to school, cooked my supper and read me a bedtime story was
exactly like the Mama I had seen on the screen. She was perfectly
natural on and off it. There was nothing forced or actressy about her
whatever she did.’

Audrey
was born in Brussels, but had British citizenship through her banker
father and went to school in the Kent village of Elham.

She fell in love with Rome at the age
of 24 while making what was to become the classic movie Roman Holiday
in 1953, and it later became her home for more than 20 years. And now,
to mark the 60th anniversary of Roman Holiday, the film has been
re-released in cinemas and Luca, a graphic designer, is publishing a
book about his mother. Through 200 intimate photographs, Audrey In Rome
focuses on her career and the lifestyle she led in the city.

With
her elfin face, big brown eyes, high cheek bones, swan-like neck and
slim figure, she became a fashion icon as much as she was a movie star.
Not that Luca realised.

‘We
would only see her in jeans and a top. The glamorous side of her life
was something that she never flaunted. Eventually I realised she was
special, because photographers would follow her around, and strangers
would call out compliments in the street.

‘It took me some time to see that
this didn’t happen to everyone’s mama, just mine. When I asked her about
it, she would laugh and play it down. She didn’t like clothes that were
over the top, because she was aware of what she regarded as her
defects. She’d never wear revealing dresses, saying “I’m too skinny. Not
enough breasts.” She thought her nose and feet were too big and
sometimes she’d look in the mirror and say, “I don’t understand why some
people say I’m beautiful.”’

Eventually Luca realised she was special,
because photographers would follow her around, and strangers would call
out compliments in the street

The discovery that his mother was a
famous film star opened up a whole new world for Luca. ‘Until then, I’d
never realised her friends who used to visit us were famous. There would
be people like Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, James Stewart and the
designers Givenchy and Valentino.

She
helped me and my brother with our homework and would come to school to
speak with teachers, who sometimes got unsettled. One teacher was busy
dealing with one parent after another, and then she looked up and there
was Audrey Hepburn. She was speechless, as my mother said, “Hello, I’m
here to talk about my son.” 

'That
sort of thing has followed me all my life. Once, when I had to fill in a
tax form in France, I had a meeting with this lady official, and where I
was asked for mother’s name I of course wrote Audrey Hepburn. She said,
“What is this? Are you making fun of me?” It’s something people didn’t
believe.’

The level of
his mother’s fame hit home when Luca met Sean Connery, who was playing
Robin Hood to her Maid Marion in the film Robin And Marion. ‘Mama took
me to the set because she didn’t want to be apart from us. I was very
excited to meet Sean because for me he was James Bond.

Born in 1929, Audrey was ten and had moved to
Holland from Kent when war broke out as her family thought it would
remain neutral. But, surrounded by Nazis, they were often close to
starvation

He was nice to me, but
apparently I was a pain, because I wanted to have a sword and helmet
like the men in the movie. Mama told me off. Not so much with words, but
with her eyes. I could see that she was upset with me.’ Luca shocked
his mother by suggesting she should play a Bond villain.

‘I
told her, “Your films are boring and you should change this impeccable
image and be the one in the Bond movies who wants to destroy the world.”
She said, “You have to understand that I lived through World War II and
I saw people dying. I don’t want to be the one who does anything like
that.” But in a way I’d still have liked her to be a baddie!’

Born
in 1929, Audrey was ten and had moved to Holland from Kent when war
broke out as her family thought it would remain neutral. But, surrounded
by Nazis, they were often close to starvation.

Luca believes the enchantment with Rome really grew after she married actor Mel Ferrer the year after making Roman Holiday

Luca says all the praise and respect
and worldwide fame made no difference to her outlook. ‘She never had
bodyguards or travelled in cars with blacked-out windows like
celebrities do today. She would say “No, I’m perfectly able to walk.
Keep it for the years to come when I’m old and frail.”’ Fame meant
nothing to her, says Luca, unless it could be used for something
positive, which is why she spent her final years working for the
children’s charity Unicef.

She died aged 63 from cancer in 1993 after returning from a trip to Somalia on behalf of Unicef

‘She would tell us, “The human obligation is to help children who are suffering. The rest is luxury.”

Mama
always talked about her work as a profession, a way to provide for her
family. Her first career, she always said, was being a mother and her
second one was her work for Unicef. She never saw herself as a movie
star.  

‘She wasn’t
afraid of growing old. She was looking forward to sitting around the
fire and telling stories to the grandchildren. She always saw life as
seasons – “I have been young, I’ve been a mother, and now I am old.” So
to her the ageing process was normal.’

She
died aged 63 from cancer in 1993 after returning from a trip to Somalia
on behalf of Unicef. Says Luca sadly, ‘She had a check-up, and at first
they didn’t spot the cancer, but it was very aggressive and she went
very quickly. She had told us, “If I go, it means I am meant to.
Everything comes at the right time.” And that was her philosophy
throughout her life.’

Roman
Holiday is on nationwide release. Audrey In Rome, edited by Ludovica
Damiani and Luca Dotti, is published by Harper Collins, £19.99. Luca is
giving a talk on the film and his book at the V&A, London, 10
September, 6.30pm, www.vam.ac.uk.