Hollywood legend Kim Novak has expressed her concern over an upcoming biopic in which she will be played by Sydney Sweeney.
Titled Scandalous!, the film will explore the Vertigo actress’s ill-fated 1957 romance with musician and entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.
The film serves as the directorial debut of Colman Domingo, and will star Sweeney as actress Novak.
Meanwhile, Alien: Romulus star David Jonsson will appear as Davis Jr. in a film which goes into their undercover romance and how it came to an end when he was threatened with mob violence.
Convinced that it would be ‘bad for business’ for Hollywood star Novak to be involved with a Black man, Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn took it upon himself to end their relationship.
Novak, 92, has now shared her concern that the film will not be appropriate in its portrayal of their romance.
Taking issue with the film’s title, Novak said: ‘I don’t think the relationship was scandalous.’
Speaking to The Guardian, she continued: ‘He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look.
‘I’m concerned they’re going to make it all sexual reasons,’ she added.
Novak made these comments to the publication live from Venice Film Festival, where a documentary on her life and career is premiering.
Titled Kim Novak’s Vertigo, the film uses her starring role in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller as a springboard to her life now, as a reclusive artist in Oregon.
‘It’s incredible to feel appreciated and to receive this gift before the end of my life,’ she said of the documentary.
‘I think I’m being honoured as much for being authentic as for my acting. It has sort of come full circle.’
Sweeney has had to fend off scandalous reports of her own recently, after sparking controversy with an advertisement campaign for clothing brand American Eagle.
Launching with the tagline ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,’ the campaign was met with considerable backlash from the public, who believed the pun to reference rhetoric surrounding eugenics and white supremacy.
‘Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue,’ says the Euphoria actress in the advert.
As the debate waged on, US press outlets reported Sweeney as being a registered Republican, although she has not commented herself.
Sweeney found vocal support in President Donald Trump, who said, ‘Now, I love her ad,’ after hearing the news.
Taking to his social media platform, Social Truth, he used the Immaculate actress’s ad as the springboard for a lengthy rant in which he described ‘woke singer’ Taylor Swift as ‘no longer hot.’
‘Just look at Woke singer Taylor Swift,’ he ranted. ‘Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can’t stand her (HATE!)
‘She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became, NO LONGER HOT. The tide has seriously turned — Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’
One star who may not have been on team Trump is Davis Jr.’s longtime friend, Frank Sinatra, who, according to Sinatra’s daughter, ‘loathed him.’
This came after Trump announced plans to build a statue of Sinatra as part of his National Garden of Heroes in 2020.
After a speech by Trump, actress Mia Farrow tweeted, ‘Frank Sinatra would have loathed Donald Trump.’
To which Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy, responded: ‘He actually did loathe him.’
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