Legendary Hollywood actress Kim Novak has declared she ‘would never have approved’ Sydney Sweeney to play her in an upcoming biopic.
Two years ago, it was announced that a movie was in the works that would follow the Vertigo star’s interracial relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.
Titled Scandalous!, it will explore her ill-fated 1957 romance with the musician, entertainer and Rat Pack member.
Directed by Colman Domingo, Sydney will star as Kim, while Alien: Romulus star David Jonsson will play the late Davis Jr.
However, Kim, 93, has repeatedly expressed her displeasure at the casting of the Euphoria and Anyone but You actress.
In a new interview with The Times of London, Kim – who was born Marilyn Pauline ‘Kim’ Novak – declared that she ‘would never have approved’, adding that Sydney, 28, ‘sticks out so much above the waist’.
The publication noted that Kim’s criticism is based on her concern that the film will focus on the sexual side of the relationship rather than the fact that they had ‘so much in common’.
‘There’s no way it wouldn’t be a sexual relationship because Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time. She was totally wrong to play me,’ she added.
What happened between Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr.?
Kim – who is best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo – first met the relationship with the musician in 1957 when they both appeared as guests on The Steve Allen Show.
The following year they began a relationship. At the time Kim was under contract with Columbia Pictures, whose president Harry Cohn was worried that public backlash against the pair’s relationship might affect the studio.
A Gallup poll undertaken during that time period showed only 4 percent of Americans approved of interracial unions, which were still outlawed in some states.
But pushing back against the pressure to end their relationship, Kim once said: ‘Something inside of me rebelled when I was told not to see him. I didn’t think it was anybody’s business.”
‘We became conspirators, drawn together by the single thing we had in common: defiance,’ Davis Jr. once said.
Despite this, after a gossip column that suggested the pair were set to get married, Davis Jr. was threatened by organised crime figures close to Cohn, who ordered him to break things off with Novak. He was also threatened with violence if he did not marry a Black woman within two days.
Nine days later, he married a Black chorus girl named Loray White. The couple never lived together and divorced the following year.
He went on to marry white-Swedish actress May Britt in 1960 – with their relationship also seeing him to intense backlash and racism. They divorced eight years later after he admitted to having an affair.
Davis Jr. married dancer Altovise Gore the year after his divorce, with the couple remaining together until his death in 1990.
Meanwhile Kim went on to marry actor Richard Johnson in 1965. After they divorced, she married veterinarian Robert Malloy in 1976 and remained together until his death in 2021.
Once reflecting on her relationship with Davis Jr., she said their romance was ‘often misunderstood’ and that: ‘Because of the colour of his skin people did terrible things.’
What have Kim Novak and Sydney Sweeney said about the upcoming biopic?
Laurent Koffel/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
During the Venice Film Festival last year, Kim revealed she was ‘a little concerned’ about the biopic.
‘I have to speak out about the movie that’s about to be made about the Sammy Davis relationship,’ she told the audience of a masterclass, before explaining her issue with Sydney.
‘I think actors have a wonderful place to do whatever, but, in my case, I’m not an actress – I’m a re-actress. So therefore, I’d like to see somebody playing that role that is more of a re-actor than an actor.’
She went on to make it clear she had no issue with Sydney’s talent and said it was just her ‘personal feeling’.
‘I think that the person that is going to be doing it is a really wonderful actress, I truly do, she’s really good, but I don’t think we want an actress for that role.’
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year Sydney – who is also a producer on the film – was asked if she’d met the actress she was set to play on screen, but she dodged the question and instead said: ‘Colman and her have a really beautiful relationship. They’ve been talking. We connected them, so it’s been really cool.’
Speaking to People around the same time, the actress said she was ‘incredibly honoured’ to be playing Kim.
‘I think her story is still very relevant today in that she dealt with Hollywood and scrutiny with her relationships and her own private life and the control of her image. And I think that for me, I relate to it in a lot of different ways,’ she said.
Throughout her career Kim won two Golden Globes and also starred in Bell, Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet, and Kiss Me, Stupid. However, she withdrew from acting by 1966 and has only been seen on screen a handful of times since.
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