WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 You know, usually when we think of Hollywood 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:05.440 royalty, there's this heavy expectation of just 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.429 like... pristine, almost untouched glamour. Oh, 00:00:09.490 --> 00:00:11.570 absolutely. It's essentially a modern fairy tale. 00:00:11.710 --> 00:00:13.810 Right. You picture the velvet red carpets, the 00:00:13.810 --> 00:00:17.750 diamonds, that iconic little black dress. And 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:20.870 it just feels like these figures were born directly 00:00:20.870 --> 00:00:24.730 into this flawless aspirational world. Yeah. 00:00:24.789 --> 00:00:27.609 I mean, it is a very deliberate mythology. We 00:00:27.609 --> 00:00:30.129 inherently want our icons to float above the 00:00:30.129 --> 00:00:32.740 grit. and the mundane struggles of real life. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.000 Yeah, it gives us something pure to look up to. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:37.939 Exactly. But then you step into the actual lived 00:00:37.939 --> 00:00:40.840 history of someone like Audrey Hepburn, relying 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.679 on a comprehensive Wikipedia article detailing 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.280 her life, and suddenly that pristine fairy tale 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.039 completely shatters. It really does. Because 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.420 beneath the given she gowns, we are looking at 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:54.960 a reality that is remarkably gritty. Right. It's 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.439 brutal. It's a story of profound resilience, 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:01.009 and it is deeply inextricably rooted in the horrors 00:01:01.009 --> 00:01:04.129 of World War II. Which fundamentally reframes 00:01:04.129 --> 00:01:06.109 everything she accomplished, I think. Oh, completely. 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:09.230 Her legendary poise wasn't just like a byproduct 00:01:09.230 --> 00:01:12.329 of acting lessons. It was the ultimate manifestation 00:01:12.329 --> 00:01:14.700 of survival. And that is exactly our mission 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:17.599 for today's deep dive. We are going to look right 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:20.459 past that sanitized, glamorous Hollywood image 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:24.280 and uncover the highly complex reality of an 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:27.420 ego -winning icon who was fundamentally forged 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.799 by war and starvation. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:32.920 So to really understand where that legendary 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:34.980 grace comes from, we have to look at the environment 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:37.719 she was born into. Right. She was born in 1929 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:41.859 in Belgium to an aristocratic a Dutch Baroness 00:01:41.859 --> 00:01:45.060 mother and a British father. So on the surface, 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:49.140 you have this very privileged, sheltered, multinational 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:52.239 early childhood. But the political reality of 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:55.579 1930s Europe was creeping right into her living 00:01:55.579 --> 00:01:57.219 room. Right. And it's really important to note 00:01:57.219 --> 00:01:59.799 here, just looking objectively at the historical 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.299 record our sources provide, both of her parents 00:02:02.299 --> 00:02:04.719 were actively involved in highly controversial 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.159 political movements of the era. They were. They 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.759 both recruited and collected donations for the 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:12.270 British Union of Fascists in the mid 1930s. Which 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:14.770 is shocking to a lot of people. It is. And her 00:02:14.770 --> 00:02:17.870 mother even traveled to Germany, met Adolf Hitler, 00:02:18.229 --> 00:02:20.889 and wrote favorable articles about him. Now, 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:22.729 we are, of course, just reporting the history 00:02:22.729 --> 00:02:24.849 exactly as it's documented in the source material. 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:27.270 Right. Absolutely. Without taking any political 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:29.569 sides or endorsing those past views, we're just 00:02:29.569 --> 00:02:31.909 laying out the facts. Exactly. Just conveying 00:02:31.909 --> 00:02:35.629 the source. But it paints a picture of a very 00:02:35.629 --> 00:02:39.590 volatile, intensely political household. just 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:41.750 before the outbreak of the war. And right in 00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:44.550 the middle of that mounting tension a deeply 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:49.069 personal fracture occurs. In 1935 her father 00:02:49.069 --> 00:02:52.219 abruptly abandons the family. Wow. He moves to 00:02:52.219 --> 00:02:55.159 London to become even more deeply involved in 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:57.719 fascist activities, leaving his wife and young 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:00.099 daughter completely behind. Which is staggering 00:03:00.099 --> 00:03:02.159 when you consider everything else she went through 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:04.419 later in life. Oh, yeah. Because Hepburn actually 00:03:04.419 --> 00:03:06.520 went on the record calling this abrupt abandonment 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:08.280 the most traumatic event of her entire life. 00:03:08.500 --> 00:03:10.800 Really? Even more traumatic than the war? Yeah, 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:12.900 even more than the war. She said that children 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:16.319 fundamentally need two parents. And being dumped 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:18.860 like that completely devastated her emotional 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:22.099 foundation. What's fascinating is how this specific 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:25.620 childhood trauma set the psychological baseline 00:03:25.620 --> 00:03:28.400 for everything that followed. Right. She enters 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:32.300 the terrifying landscape of World War II already 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:34.780 harboring this profound wound of abandonment. 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:38.139 Jeez. By the time the war is in full swing, she 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:39.919 is living in the Netherlands with her mother. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:43.159 And it's worth noting that her mother completely 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:46.000 abandoned all of her previous fascist sympathies 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.599 after 1942. Right, because of what happened to 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.990 her uncle. Exactly. That pivot happened because 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:54.810 Hepburn's uncle was executed by the resistance 00:03:54.810 --> 00:03:56.879 movement. which was a stark wake -up call to 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:59.259 the brutal reality of the regime. Yeah, and he 00:03:59.259 --> 00:04:00.919 hadn't even done anything wrong. He was just 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:03.560 targeted and killed because the family was prominent 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.020 in Dutch society, and the occupying forces wanted 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:08.520 to send a message. It's just horrific. It is. 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:11.159 And from there, the horrors just compound around 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:12.919 this young girl. Her half -brothers are sent 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:15.599 away. One is forced into a German labor camp. 00:04:15.659 --> 00:04:18.379 Another goes deep into hiding. And Hepburn herself 00:04:18.379 --> 00:04:21.240 is standing on the streets, witnessing the deportation 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.339 of Dutch Jews to concentration camps. She actually 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:27.800 saw it. happening she did there is one specific 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:31.459 memory she recalls in the sources that is incredibly 00:04:31.459 --> 00:04:34.420 haunting she remembers watching train loads of 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:37.480 people being taken away and she fixated on a 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:40.740 pale blonde little boy standing on the platform 00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:43.300 oh wow he was wearing a coat that was entirely 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:45.920 too big for him just stepping onto a cattle car 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:48.740 she described it by saying I was a child observing 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:51.480 a child I mean that is the ultimate loss of innocence 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.730 you have a young girl watching the systematic 00:04:54.730 --> 00:04:57.769 destruction of her world. But the sheer psychological 00:04:57.769 --> 00:05:00.709 terror eventually gives way to a desperate physical 00:05:00.709 --> 00:05:03.290 fight for survival. This was during the Dutch 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:07.089 famine of 1944 to 1945. The Honger Winter. Exactly, 00:05:07.189 --> 00:05:09.389 the Honger Winter. Because the Germans deliberately 00:05:09.389 --> 00:05:11.769 cut off food and fuel supplies to the western 00:05:11.769 --> 00:05:14.189 provinces of the Netherlands in retaliation for 00:05:14.189 --> 00:05:16.589 railway strikes. Right. So you have a formerly 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:18.930 aristocratic family who have lost their fortune, 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:21.209 whose properties have been destroyed or seized, 00:05:21.689 --> 00:05:23.589 suddenly thrust into a scenario where there is 00:05:23.589 --> 00:05:25.990 literally no food. And this is where the biological 00:05:25.990 --> 00:05:28.430 reality of starvation really sets in. To survive, 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:31.100 they resorted to digging up tulip bulbs. Tulip 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:33.420 bulbs. Yeah. Now, tulip bulbs aren't meant for 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:35.519 human consumption. Right. Aren't they toxic? 00:05:35.660 --> 00:05:37.899 They can be. They can actually be toxic if not 00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:41.319 prepared correctly. But they process them, mashing 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:43.699 them down to make a makeshift flour just to bake 00:05:43.699 --> 00:05:46.500 crude cakes and biscuits. That's just wild. They 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:49.000 provided a meager source of starchy carbohydrates, 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:53.430 but absolutely zero... I want to pause on that 00:05:53.430 --> 00:05:55.769 for you listening, because the contrast is almost 00:05:55.769 --> 00:05:58.889 too extreme to process. Yeah. When we picture 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:01.430 Audrey Hepburn today, we immediately picture 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:04.490 the glittering windows of Tiffany's. We picture 00:06:04.490 --> 00:06:07.149 perfectly tailored Givenchy gowns and absolute 00:06:07.149 --> 00:06:09.610 elegance. Right. But the reality of her formative 00:06:09.610 --> 00:06:12.610 years is eating mashed tulip bulbs just to keep 00:06:12.610 --> 00:06:15.069 her internal organs from shutting down. It's 00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.290 hard to reconcile. It is. It's an analogy for 00:06:17.290 --> 00:06:21.470 the absolute rock bottom of human survival. that 00:06:21.470 --> 00:06:24.250 pristine image entirely. It's like finding out 00:06:24.250 --> 00:06:26.509 Cinderella spent her formative teenage years 00:06:26.509 --> 00:06:29.009 digging trenches in a war zone before anyone 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:31.970 ever handed her a glass slipper. And the physical 00:06:31.970 --> 00:06:36.089 toll of that trench warfare, so to speak, was 00:06:36.089 --> 00:06:38.829 permanent. By the time the war ended, she wasn't 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:41.350 just hungry. No. Her body was shutting down. 00:06:41.730 --> 00:06:44.509 She suffered from severe jaundice, meaning her 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:47.610 liver was failing. Oh my god. She had profound 00:06:47.610 --> 00:06:50.410 anemia, and she developed severe edema. Which 00:06:50.410 --> 00:06:52.730 is the swelling, right? Yeah, it's what happens 00:06:52.730 --> 00:06:56.069 when extreme protein deficiency causes the body 00:06:56.069 --> 00:06:58.970 to retain massive amounts of fluid leading to 00:06:58.970 --> 00:07:01.209 painful swelling. So she was literally on the 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:04.129 bank of death. She really was. The sources note 00:07:04.129 --> 00:07:06.170 her life was only saved because someone managed 00:07:06.170 --> 00:07:08.589 to buy penicillin for her on the black market 00:07:08.589 --> 00:07:11.029 and the currency used to buy that life -saving 00:07:11.029 --> 00:07:13.689 medicine. Thousands of cigarettes that had been 00:07:13.689 --> 00:07:16.189 sent by a British prisoner of war who happened 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:18.649 to correspond with her mother. I mean, talk about 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:21.589 a razor -thin, miraculous margin of survival. 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:24.149 Seriously. But survival often comes with an invoice. 00:07:24.910 --> 00:07:27.470 And the immediate, devastating consequence of 00:07:27.470 --> 00:07:30.389 the hunger winter was that it forced a complete, 00:07:30.629 --> 00:07:33.730 unwanted pivot in her life's trajectory. Because 00:07:33.730 --> 00:07:36.610 her ultimate dream, her absolute passion in life, 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:39.430 was ballet. Even during the war, she had been 00:07:39.430 --> 00:07:42.490 performing what she called silent dances. in 00:07:42.490 --> 00:07:45.230 basements to secretly raise money for the Dutch 00:07:45.230 --> 00:07:47.790 resistance. Which is incredibly brave. It really 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:50.709 is. So after the war, she moves to London and 00:07:50.709 --> 00:07:53.149 actually secures a scholarship to Ballet Rambert, 00:07:53.410 --> 00:07:56.149 which is a highly prestigious institution. She 00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:58.949 is ready to finally pursue her art. Until her 00:07:58.949 --> 00:08:01.449 instructors sit her down for a devastating reality 00:08:01.449 --> 00:08:04.550 check. Yeah. They told her that despite her undeniable 00:08:04.550 --> 00:08:08.029 talent and her incredible work ethic, the permanent 00:08:08.029 --> 00:08:10.569 physical damage inflicted by the famine, meant 00:08:10.569 --> 00:08:13.870 she could never achieve her dream. That is heartbreaking. 00:08:14.230 --> 00:08:17.610 A prima ballerina requires immense sustained 00:08:17.610 --> 00:08:20.769 muscular strength and a robust physical constitution. 00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:23.730 Her body, having been starved of fundamental 00:08:23.730 --> 00:08:25.730 nutrients during its most critical developmental 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:28.430 years, simply could not handle the physical demands. 00:08:28.569 --> 00:08:31.470 Wow. Her own biology was essentially rebelling 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:33.659 against her dream. So what does this all mean? 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:36.399 How does a person mentally pivot to a completely 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.279 new career when the single thing they want most 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:41.559 in the world is physically taken from them by 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:44.200 the lingering ghosts of starvation? It's a massive 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:47.840 blow. That level of rejection combined with the 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:50.000 trauma she already endured, I mean, that would 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.320 permanently break most people's spirit. Right. 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:55.669 But it tells us that beneath the grace, she possessed 00:08:55.669 --> 00:08:58.730 a relentless, almost ruthless adaptability. Yeah. 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.970 Because for Hepburn, pivoting to acting was not 00:09:01.970 --> 00:09:04.330 initially about the glamorous pursuit of Hollywood 00:09:04.330 --> 00:09:06.850 fame or artistic validation. Not at all. It was 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:10.370 an incredibly pragmatic survival mechanism. Her 00:09:10.370 --> 00:09:13.110 mother, this former Dutch Baroness, was now forced 00:09:13.110 --> 00:09:15.929 to work menial jobs. Like as a cook, right? Yeah, 00:09:16.149 --> 00:09:18.029 acting as a cook and a housekeeper just to keep 00:09:18.029 --> 00:09:21.080 a roof over their heads in London. Hepburn looked 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:23.860 at that situation and realized she had to generate 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:28.000 income immediately. Pure pragmatism. So she pivots. 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.139 If she can't be a prima ballerina, she uses her 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.720 movement skills to become a chorus girl in West 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:36.899 End musical reviews. Yes. She starts taking intense 00:09:36.899 --> 00:09:39.759 elocution lessons to develop her speaking voice 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:42.840 so she can book piss gigs. She starts taking 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.940 minor uncredited roles in small films purely 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:48.360 to pay the rent. And that hustle places her in 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:50.379 the exact right place at the exact right time. 00:09:50.820 --> 00:09:54.399 She is grinding out a tiny role in a bilingual 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.100 film being shot in Monte Carlo. And staying at 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:01.039 the exact same hotel is the legendary French 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.679 novelist Colette. Which is where fate steps in. 00:10:04.220 --> 00:10:07.600 Colette spots this young, striking woman walking 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:09.700 through the lobby and instantly points at her 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:12.720 and decides, that is my lead. Just like that. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:15.779 She casts Hepburn in the title role of her upcoming 00:10:15.779 --> 00:10:18.590 Broadway play, Gigi. And keep in mind... Hepburn 00:10:18.590 --> 00:10:21.129 had never spoken a single line of dialogue on 00:10:21.129 --> 00:10:23.470 a theatrical stage before in her life. Never. 00:10:23.710 --> 00:10:26.490 She was absolutely terrified. The sources mentioned 00:10:26.490 --> 00:10:29.269 she needed intense private coaching just to make 00:10:29.269 --> 00:10:31.190 it through the rehearsals. I can imagine. But 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:33.830 she taps into that exact same survival instinct. 00:10:33.870 --> 00:10:35.750 She goes to New York, she steps onto a Broadway 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:38.669 stage, and she is an absolute sensation. The 00:10:38.669 --> 00:10:41.110 New York Times literally called her the success 00:10:41.110 --> 00:10:44.690 of the evening. And that exact adaptability combined 00:10:44.690 --> 00:10:47.639 with her unique physical appearance. Right. must 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:51.299 remember was a direct biological result of her 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:53.960 past malnutrition and her ballet training. That 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:56.740 is what unexpectedly took Hollywood by storm. 00:10:57.299 --> 00:10:59.919 She didn't just become a star, she changed the 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.740 global standard of beauty forever. That brings 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:06.559 us to 1953 and her massive breakout film role 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:09.279 in Roman Holiday. Such a classic. Now the director 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:11.980 William Wyler originally wanted Elizabeth Taylor 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:14.360 to play the role of the runaway princess. Oh 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:16.480 really? Yeah, which makes sense for the era. 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:20.629 Before Hepburn, the 1950s feminine ideal was 00:11:20.629 --> 00:11:23.409 the voluptuous, curvy bombshell. Right, you're 00:11:23.409 --> 00:11:25.429 Marilyn Monroe, you're Elizabeth Taylor. Exactly. 00:11:26.029 --> 00:11:28.889 But Weiler sees Hepburn's screen test and is 00:11:28.889 --> 00:11:31.750 utterly enchanted. You noted she had this incredible 00:11:31.750 --> 00:11:34.309 mixture of charm, innocence, and talent, and 00:11:34.309 --> 00:11:37.129 she was surprisingly funny. Yeah. It was a complete 00:11:37.129 --> 00:11:39.450 departure from the prevailing Hollywood mold. 00:11:39.659 --> 00:11:42.200 And her co -star, the legendary Gregory Peck, 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:44.440 immediately recognized that a cultural shift 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:46.179 was happening right in front of him. He's a smart 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:49.879 guy. Very. Originally, his contract stated his 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:52.419 name would be the only one above the title, with 00:11:52.419 --> 00:11:54.600 introducing Audrey Hepburn in a much smaller 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.039 print down below. Right. But Peck actually went 00:11:57.039 --> 00:11:59.379 to the producers and demanded that she get equal 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:02.559 top billing. Wow. He explicitly told them she 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:04.940 was going to be a massive star. And if his name 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:06.840 was the only one at the top, he was going to 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.940 look like a big jerk. A very astute my pack, 00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:12.120 because she goes on to win the Academy Award 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:15.360 for Best Actress for that exact role. Yeah. And 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.799 impressively, that exact same year, 1954, she 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.120 also wins a Tony Award for her performance in 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.659 a play called Undine. Winning an Oscar and a 00:12:23.659 --> 00:12:26.059 Tony in the same calendar year is an incredible 00:12:26.059 --> 00:12:28.340 feat. Unheard of. She actually goes on to become 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:31.840 a full EGOT winner later in life, securing an 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:35.100 Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Incredible. 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:37.580 But beyond the trophy cabinet, her impact on 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:39.779 culture was perfect. found. She introduced what 00:12:39.779 --> 00:12:43.460 the sources call a gamian look. Yeah, gaming 00:12:43.460 --> 00:12:46.379 essentially refers to a boyish, slender, wide 00:12:46.379 --> 00:12:49.679 -eyed, and mischievous aesthetic. It was a slim, 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:52.200 minimalist presentation that young women across 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.580 the world found incredibly refreshing. And more 00:12:55.580 --> 00:12:57.519 importantly, much easier to emulate in their 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.379 own lives than the unattainable curves of a bombshell. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:03.440 She single -handedly popularized plain black 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:05.759 leggings. She really did. And of course, you 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:08.000 cannot talk about her style without talking about 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.860 her lifelong collaboration with the French designer 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:14.059 Hubert de Givenchy. Oh, iconic. Although the 00:13:14.059 --> 00:13:16.500 sources note a pretty hilarious mix up during 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:18.399 their very first meeting. Yeah, this is great. 00:13:18.580 --> 00:13:20.539 Givenchy was told he was going to design the 00:13:20.539 --> 00:13:23.100 wardrobe for Miss Hepburn for the film Sabrina. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.120 He was thrilled because he was expecting to meet 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.159 the already established legend. Catherine Hepburn. 00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:31.740 Right. He was admittedly disappointed when this 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:33.980 unknown, incredibly skinny young woman showed 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:37.039 up instead. I bet. But they quickly bonded and 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:40.000 formed arguably the most famous fashion partnership 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.220 in cinematic history. Givenchy went on to design 00:13:43.220 --> 00:13:45.840 her iconic looks for breakfast at Tiffany's, 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:48.679 Funny Face, Charade, and so many others. OK. 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:50.799 Here's where it gets really interesting. OK. 00:13:51.019 --> 00:13:54.240 Because there is a massive, almost tragic irony 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.200 at the center of her life. This is the woman 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:58.919 who popularized the little black dress. She was 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:00.740 eventually named the most beautiful woman of 00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:03.860 the 20th century. Yeah. Vogue magazine literally 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:06.779 called her the acme of classic beauty. But behind 00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:09.159 closed doors, she secretly hated how she looked. 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:12.500 It is a shocking contradiction. It is. In a remarkably 00:14:12.500 --> 00:14:16.580 candid 1959 interview, she admitted it very plainly. 00:14:16.899 --> 00:14:18.679 She said she looked in the mirror and thought 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:21.899 she was too fat. too tall and too ugly. Wow. 00:14:22.460 --> 00:14:24.799 She explicitly stated that her distinct style 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:27.139 and her definiteness didn't come from a place 00:14:27.139 --> 00:14:30.019 of confidence, but rather stemmed from underlying 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:33.659 deep -seated feelings of insecurity and inferiority. 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:36.519 Think about that for a second. The woman who 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:38.980 defined elegance for an entire century looked 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:42.200 in the mirror and only saw flaws. Yeah. How does 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:44.519 someone function at the highest levels of global 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:46.860 fame while carrying that kind of self -doubt? 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:49.899 Well, you functioned by constructing a psychological 00:14:49.899 --> 00:14:52.360 shield. Right. Her fashion wasn't just about 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:54.480 wearing beautiful clothing. It was an armor she 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.620 meticulously built to protect herself from the 00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:59.080 world. An armor. That makes so much sense. Yeah, 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:01.419 she realized early on that she couldn't conquer 00:15:01.419 --> 00:15:03.919 those overwhelming feelings of insecurity by 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:07.299 acting indecisive or timid. So she adopted what 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:10.440 she called a forceful, concentrated drive. She 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:13.200 projected absolute certainty on the outside to 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.620 guard the fragile survivor on the inside. And 00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:18.779 you really see that forceful drive manifest on 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:21.480 movie sets as she gains more industry power. 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:24.759 Oh, definitely. Beneath the delicate, wide -eyed 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:27.679 persona, she had incredibly strict principles 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:30.240 and boundaries. She always required dressing 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:33.200 room 55. simply because it was her lucky number. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.659 That's funny. And when she was filming Charade 00:15:35.659 --> 00:15:39.200 opposite Cary Grant, Grant was super uncomfortable 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:42.679 with the visual age gap. He was 59 and she was 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:46.159 34. Right, a big difference. Huge. So Hepburn 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.100 stepped in and demanded the filmmakers alter 00:15:49.100 --> 00:15:51.779 the screenplay so that her character was the 00:15:51.779 --> 00:15:54.320 one aggressively pursuing his character, which 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:57.100 totally shifted the dynamic and eased his concerns. 00:15:57.179 --> 00:15:59.720 It was a brilliant diplomatic fix that saved 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.090 the chemistry of the film. It really was. But 00:16:02.090 --> 00:16:04.210 she was equally capable of putting her foot down 00:16:04.210 --> 00:16:06.990 hard when she felt betrayed. The most famous 00:16:06.990 --> 00:16:08.750 example of this occurred during the filming of 00:16:08.750 --> 00:16:10.870 the massive musical adaptation of My Fair Lady. 00:16:10.990 --> 00:16:14.149 Oh, yes. She had put in months of grueling, lengthy 00:16:14.149 --> 00:16:17.450 vocal preparation to sing the iconic role of 00:16:17.450 --> 00:16:19.909 Eliza Doolittle. She worked so hard on it. She 00:16:19.909 --> 00:16:22.529 was promised her own voice would be used. But 00:16:22.529 --> 00:16:25.649 the powerful studio producer, Jack Warner, secretly 00:16:25.649 --> 00:16:28.309 decided her vocals weren't strong enough. Without 00:16:28.309 --> 00:16:30.980 telling her. Right, without telling her. He arranged 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:34.159 to have her singing voice overdubbed by a professional 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:38.220 ghost singer named Marnie Nixon. Nearly 90 % 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:41.080 of her vocal performance was erased and replaced 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.659 without her consent. And when she finally found 00:16:43.659 --> 00:16:46.559 out they had gone behind her back, she was furious. 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:49.419 Understandably. She famously walked right off 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:51.940 the set. She later admitted she never would have 00:16:51.940 --> 00:16:53.460 accepted the role if she had known they were 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.289 going to replace her voice. It is a perfect example 00:16:56.289 --> 00:16:59.789 of that firm spine. You don't survive a war and 00:16:59.789 --> 00:17:01.610 starvation without learning how to stand your 00:17:01.610 --> 00:17:04.349 ground. Precisely. But even after conquering 00:17:04.349 --> 00:17:07.329 Hollywood, dictating terms to studios and becoming 00:17:07.329 --> 00:17:10.630 a global icon, she never fully outran the ghosts 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:14.049 of her youth. No. And the final, arguably most 00:17:14.049 --> 00:17:16.410 important chapter of her life is really about 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:19.119 coming to terms with that past. She steps away 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:22.019 from the camera to actively heal the exact kind 00:17:22.019 --> 00:17:24.119 of trauma she suffered as a child. Right, because 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:28.119 after 1967, she scales way back on acting. She 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:31.079 retreats from the Hollywood machine and moves 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:34.400 to a remote, high -walled 21 -room estate in 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.920 Switzerland called La Passebla, which translates 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.440 to The Peaceful One. And there is a detail in 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:43.599 the sources about this move that is just heartbreaking. 00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:46.940 Tell me. She specifically chose to buy a home 00:17:46.940 --> 00:17:49.220 in the French -speaking region of Switzerland 00:17:49.220 --> 00:17:53.279 for one distinct reason. So her young son wouldn't 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:56.599 have to learn German in school. It is an incredibly 00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:00.210 telling detail. Decades later, living in absolute 00:18:00.210 --> 00:18:03.650 luxury, the echo of her wartime trauma is still 00:18:03.650 --> 00:18:07.049 dictating her life choices. She is actively manipulating 00:18:07.049 --> 00:18:09.509 her environment to protect her child from ever 00:18:09.509 --> 00:18:11.130 having to speak the language of the soldiers 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:13.349 who occupied her town and starved her family. 00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:15.069 But the beauty of her story is that she doesn't 00:18:15.069 --> 00:18:17.430 just hide behind those high walls forever. No, 00:18:17.430 --> 00:18:19.710 she doesn't. She eventually leverages all of 00:18:19.710 --> 00:18:21.910 that global fame and devotes the last years of 00:18:21.910 --> 00:18:25.569 her life to becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. 00:18:25.690 --> 00:18:28.470 Which is a huge deal. It is, and it is crucial 00:18:28.470 --> 00:18:31.250 to understand that this was not a ceremonial 00:18:31.250 --> 00:18:34.369 vanity title where she just showed up to fancy 00:18:34.369 --> 00:18:37.230 galas in New York to cut ribbons. Right. She 00:18:37.230 --> 00:18:39.630 went out into the field, deploying into some 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:42.309 of the most devastated, dangerous places on earth. 00:18:42.509 --> 00:18:46.269 Her ground game was relentless. In 1988, she 00:18:46.269 --> 00:18:49.369 traveled to Ethiopia, witnessing starving children 00:18:49.369 --> 00:18:52.650 and mothers who had literally walked for weeks 00:18:52.650 --> 00:18:55.869 across deserts looking for food. Unbelievable. 00:18:56.509 --> 00:19:00.109 She went to Turkey to facilitate a massive immunization 00:19:00.109 --> 00:19:03.069 campaign. She flew into Sudan in the middle of 00:19:03.069 --> 00:19:05.869 a brutal civil war to help ferry food to the 00:19:05.869 --> 00:19:09.390 southern regions. Wow. And in 1992, just months 00:19:09.390 --> 00:19:11.190 before she passed away from appendix cancer, 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:13.869 she insisted on traveling to Somalia. She called 00:19:13.869 --> 00:19:16.609 the situation in Somalia apocalyptic. Yeah. She 00:19:16.609 --> 00:19:18.950 told reporters, I walked into a nightmare, noting 00:19:18.950 --> 00:19:21.049 that the famine and devastation there was worse 00:19:21.049 --> 00:19:23.450 than anything she had previously seen in Ethiopia 00:19:23.450 --> 00:19:26.150 or Bangladesh. And the UN photographers who traveled 00:19:26.150 --> 00:19:27.990 with her noted something incredible about her 00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:30.099 presence in these camps. Why was that? While 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.660 other diplomats or politicians would hesitate, 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:35.259 unsure of how to interact with the suffering, 00:19:35.859 --> 00:19:38.980 Hepburn would bypass the bureaucracy. She'd walk 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:41.339 right up to children who are suffering from severe 00:19:41.339 --> 00:19:44.279 malnutrition and covered in flies and simply 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:46.640 hold them. The photographer said she was like 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.119 the Pied Piper. The children were just drawn 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:51.740 to her. This raises an important question. Wait, 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:54.380 no, actually, that's your line. Uh -huh. It is. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:56.539 This raises an important question for all of 00:19:56.539 --> 00:19:59.039 us about the cyclical nature of trauma and healing. 00:19:59.150 --> 00:20:02.369 We so often see people who suffer terrible things 00:20:02.369 --> 00:20:06.609 either pass that pain onto others or build insurmountable 00:20:06.609 --> 00:20:09.529 walls to insulate themselves from the world forever. 00:20:10.269 --> 00:20:12.710 But Hepburn looked at those starving children 00:20:12.710 --> 00:20:16.420 in Somalia and explicitly saw herself. Wow. Upon 00:20:16.420 --> 00:20:18.779 her appointment to UNICEF, she publicly stated 00:20:18.779 --> 00:20:21.480 that her primary motivation was to repay the 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:24.000 international aid she had received as a desperate, 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:26.500 starving girl in the Netherlands. She knew exactly 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:28.839 what it felt like to be that pale child in the 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:31.569 oversized coat. She actually despised the term 00:20:31.569 --> 00:20:34.150 third world. She would constantly correct people 00:20:34.150 --> 00:20:36.890 insisting we're all one world. I love that. She 00:20:36.890 --> 00:20:39.250 proves that true legacy isn't about the EGOT. 00:20:39.390 --> 00:20:42.049 It's not about the gold statues you accumulate 00:20:42.049 --> 00:20:44.509 or the designer dresses you make famous. It is 00:20:44.509 --> 00:20:46.930 entirely about how you leverage the platform 00:20:46.930 --> 00:20:49.049 you've been given to alleviate the suffering 00:20:49.049 --> 00:20:52.190 of others. She actively chose to take her deepest 00:20:52.190 --> 00:20:55.430 most defining childhood pain and synthesize it 00:20:55.430 --> 00:20:58.220 into her greatest contribution to humanity. It 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:01.299 is an incredibly full, tremendously complex life. 00:21:01.539 --> 00:21:03.640 It really is. To wrap this journey up, you know, 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:06.319 we are looking at a woman who went from a starving 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:09.339 teenager eating toxic tulip bulbs in a brutal 00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:14.380 war zone to a reluctant, deeply insecure Hollywood 00:21:14.380 --> 00:21:17.240 megastar who entirely redefined global beauty 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:20.160 standards. Yeah. And finally, to a fiercely dedicated 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.460 humanitarian who spent her dying days trying 00:21:22.460 --> 00:21:25.039 to save children from the exact horrors she survived. 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:27.829 A legacy that goes far beyond simple. But before 00:21:27.829 --> 00:21:29.769 we let you go, I want to leave you with one final 00:21:29.769 --> 00:21:32.049 provocative detail from the source material to 00:21:32.049 --> 00:21:34.730 mull over. Long after Audrey Hepburn passed away 00:21:34.730 --> 00:21:37.970 in 1993, her image was digitally manipulated 00:21:37.970 --> 00:21:40.970 and colorized by advertising agencies to appear 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:43.150 in modern television commercials. Yes, I remember 00:21:43.150 --> 00:21:46.230 this. They took old footage of her dancing and 00:21:46.230 --> 00:21:48.029 digitally altered it to make it look like she 00:21:48.029 --> 00:21:51.289 was selling gap skinny black pants. So weird. 00:21:51.509 --> 00:21:53.869 And even more bizarrely, they created a full 00:21:53.869 --> 00:21:56.890 computer -generated avatar of her face and body 00:21:56.890 --> 00:22:00.730 to star in a commercial selling galaxy chocolate 00:22:00.730 --> 00:22:03.029 bars. Chocolate bars. Think about the stark, 00:22:03.230 --> 00:22:05.490 almost grotesque contrast there. Yeah. Think 00:22:05.490 --> 00:22:07.890 about the gritty, traumatized survivor who spent 00:22:07.890 --> 00:22:10.690 the last days of her life fighting global famine, 00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:13.650 walking willingly into the nightmare of Somalia 00:22:13.650 --> 00:22:16.089 to hold starving children. Right. And then look 00:22:16.089 --> 00:22:18.829 at the sanitized digital avatar. are being puppeted 00:22:18.829 --> 00:22:21.430 around to sell luxury consumer goods and chocolate 00:22:21.430 --> 00:22:24.710 on television today. It makes you wonder, do 00:22:24.710 --> 00:22:26.930 we actually remember the complex, resilient, 00:22:26.990 --> 00:22:29.390 real Audrey Hepburn? Or as a culture, have we 00:22:29.390 --> 00:22:31.650 just lazily settled for a commodified illusion 00:22:31.650 --> 00:22:34.210 of a little black dress? It is a powerful lens 00:22:34.210 --> 00:22:36.369 through which to view how we treat our icons. 00:22:36.789 --> 00:22:38.829 Something to think about next time you see that 00:22:38.829 --> 00:22:43.009 famous breakfast at Tiffany's poster. Thanks 00:22:43.009 --> 00:22:44.829 for diving up with us. We'll catch you next time.