Marguerite LeWars agreed to tell the passionate fan podcast team “about her experience with the first film about, which was largely filmed on her home island, Jamaica. She was planning to become an actress. But by that time she was already a Miss Jamaica title. She entered the beauty contest to earn her first car, but still worked at Kingston Airport in Jamaica, where she handled first class passengers, among other things. that’s where director Terence Young spotted her.
Only after 60 years did she tell about how the director had attacked her
Marguerite LeWars described everything very accurately during the interview. This is how she recalls the moment when she was offered the role while checking tickets for a flight to London: – A very tall man came up to me and asked: Do you want to play in the movies? Stop and put your bag on the scales. Your ticket, please. He said that I didn’t understand and I had to listen to him. – I listen to you, but you do not listen to me – do you have any carry-on luggage? – No, I don’t, but I will make a series of films. – This is very interesting, here is your boarding pass. – I’ll make a series of videos that will be very popular for years to come! “This is very interesting, have a good flight,” she said to him.
The director boarded the plane and returned to London, but did not let go. He reappeared three months later and asked LeWars if she remembered him. Not much, she said, having cleared hundreds of passengers in the meantime. – I asked if you wanted to play in the movies. – I remember it like a haze. How can I help you now? – she reported. It was then that Young was to put a bottle of Miss Dior perfume on the counter and say that it was for her. Next to it, he also put a contract to be signed. Marguerite LeWars recalls that she refused to accept a gift from a stranger, and even less she did not want to sign any signatures – after all, the stranger did not even know if he could play.
But he insisted, “Look, we’re going to be making a series of Bond movies, and we want you to appear in the first one.” LeWars wasn’t sure, but then the director persuaded her to come to a screenplay reading, which was held at a reputable hotel. At home, she told her parents about it, who said it was worth a try. So she went to a meeting.
When she showed up for the audition, she got an offer to play another character – Miss Taro. But it soon turned out to be an unacceptable proposition for her. As she told the crew of Really, 007! “:” They gave me the script. I was supposed to be lying on the couch in a towel and kissing some stranger. I asked, “What? I’m supposed to lie in the towel on the couch? It’s going to be Sean Connery. ”“ I’ve never heard of him! ”Then they replied that soon he would be loud, because he would be Bond.
Her reaction was resolute: “I haven’t heard of him either.” I will not read the script for this role. When asked why, she said, “Because my parents wouldn’t like it.” I’m 22 and I can’t do it, it’s not my scene. Goodbye. He continues: And I started to leave. They called me back and said they had a different role without that attraction – photographer Annabel Chung. They added, “The problem is, you won’t be a good person.” She found it a much better option for her.
Interestingly, LeWars took part in the shooting of the first scene shot for the movie. It was the airport sequence where James Bond is being followed by a local photographer who later turns out to be an associate of Agent 007’s opponent. As part of the shot, she was simply supposed to take a picture of Sean Connery, but she didn’t understand how the camera worked and was ashamed to admit it. “I was very nervous,” she recalls in an interview and explained that she failed to turn on the flash in time. After a few takes, the director was resigned to say she was “a really stupid Jamaican girl.”
However, the attack took place after the shooting of the entire production was finished. Usually, on the occasion of the closing of this stage of works, a so-called “wrap party” is organized. Terence Young, 47 at the time, asked if she would go with him to the party in a limousine. She got in the back of the car and he sat down. Then came Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, who played Bond’s first official girlfriend, Honey Ryder. LeWars describes:
Sean and Ursula got in to come with us to the party. Then Terence Young leaned over, whispered something in his ear. Sean looked somewhat surprised and turned to Ursula. They both got out and closed the door behind them.
To get to the beach party, they had to travel “a long, dark and windy road. LeWars stressed:”
I’m sorry to say this, but Terence started to get aggressive at me. And even more, because he started to catch me on different parts of my body. I was so shocked I slapped him, but that didn’t stop him.
He was starting to hit me again, so I slapped him a second time and told him, “I’ll really hurt you if you touch me again, and then I’ll jump out of the car.” If they find me dead in this empty road, it will be your fault.
His reaction was textbook wrong. As described by Marguerite LeWars:
He asked me, “Do you know who I am?” These words really irritated me. I replied, “I know who you are.” He threatened to cut me out of Doctor No, so I said: – Go ahead and cut me out, because you already paid me. Cut out my scenes.
Two months after the attack, Young called her from London. “He didn’t apologize to me, he just told me, Marguerite, we need you at Pinewood Studios to record the dialogue.” We will send a ticket for you. I told him that I would not come, and then again threatened to cut me – she reported during the interview the course of that conversation.
She replied, “I already told you that you can cut me out.” I’m not coming and I don’t want anything else to do with you. The director was supposed to say: – So it won’t be your voice. LeWars was going to say goodbye, ‘So find someone else’ and hang up. As it turns out, this is why the lines in the film are read by another actress. LeWars confessed to the hosts:
I’ve never told this to anyone before. You are the first people I say this to. Before, I just repeated that there was a misunderstanding between me and the director. (…) Gentlemen, I must emphasize once again that I was then 22 years old.
Now, after all these years, I started reading about the #MeToo movement, especially in the US, about how young girls were treated exactly that nasty way by directors and other people in the industry because it was supposed to help them be successful and nothing about it either. they said.
She also added: – I managed to escape because I did not want to get into the industry and I am a person who does not agree to such things. He should have realized what kind of person I was even when I refused to accept the perfume and did not agree to the towel scene. But that’s how I was brought up. I was 22 and I dealt with it. Now that I am almost 83 years old, I am still proud of it.
Terence Young has directed three films in the James Bond series. He began working in the industry as a screenwriter, and in the 1950s he met producer Albert R. Broccoli. It was he who was impressed, among others, by of the film “Red Beret” starring Alan Ladd, he invited Young to direct the first parts of the Bond series. It was the director who decided to cast Sean Connery in the lead role, which Ian Fleming did not like. Why? His book character was a sophisticated, educated upper-class Englishman, and the actor was a Scot from a working class family. The writer changed his mind after watching the movie and decided that Connery was perfect for the role after all, though he didn’t like the whole movie at all. He was going to say Dr. No is “terrible. Just terrible.”
A year after the premiere of “Doctor No”, Young made “Greetings from Russia”, and in 1965 he made “Operation Lightning”. In 1968, he also sat on the jury of the main competition of the 21st Cannes Film Festival – it was in this city that he died at the age of 79 of a heart attack many years later.
Where to go for help?
Sexual violence is any unwanted sexual contact. According to UNICEF data, around 15 million teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 have experienced this type of violence worldwide, but only 1 percent of teenagers turn to a professional for help. Research shows that 80 percent. Rape victims develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
If you are a victim of sexual violence, you can get help by calling, for example, the “Blue Line” Telephone Clinic – 22 668 70 00 (7 days a week, 8 am – 8 pm) or the 24-hour hotline of the Women’s Rights Center – 600 070 717.
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Source: Gazeta
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
