The big screen has witnessed great fights and confrontations between actors. However, there was a rivalry that was characterized as the first and one of the most scandalous in the history of cinema.
To this day, there are many known cases of actors who did not have a good relationship during the filming of a movie. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, Patrick Swayze, and Jennifer Gray, among many others. But the truth is that this type of rivalry dates back decades, and we can find hundreds of cases in classic Hollywood cinema.
Today we focus on one that was characterized as one of the most scandalous and popular in history. We refer to the intense rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. To understand a bit of history, we must first place ourselves in the era. The tension between the two actresses dates back to the 1930s and lasted for more than 40 years.
Bette Davis was very clear that she wanted to be an actress and she was very determined to go far. However, her appearance was a factor that worked against her, so when she had the opportunity to star in the movie Ex-Lady, in 1933, she thought that this would be the moment to show her full potential. she. Warner Bros. had planned a great advertising campaign but all of that ended up being overshadowed by Joan Crawford, who on the same day that Davis's film was announced, announced her divorce from her first husband.
Since Crawford was already a much more established actress by then, all of her attention fell on her. This was the fact that triggered Bette's hatred towards Joan and it would intensify even more when she married the actor Franchot Tone. The reason? Bette was working with the actor on the movie Dangerous and she was madly in love with him.
By then, Bette Davis's distaste for Joan Crawford was evident, and every time they crossed paths it only grew worse. However, when Joan went to work at Warner Bros. in 1943, she tried to reach a truce with her partner. She sent him gifts and all kinds of presents to put an end to that fight, but she, Bette, rejected them all.
One of the reasons Davis didn't like Crawford was because there were too many rumors about the latter's love life. Well has been written over the years about Crawford's numerous relationships, with both men and women. And Bette was very sure that the intentions of the actress to approach her were for romantic reasons.
After a decade of tensions, in 1952, Bette Davis starred in Bitter Tears, where she played an actress in decline and desperate to recover her career. The film's writers were rumored to have based the main character on Joan Crawford, with whom they were friends until the friendship ended abruptly. Therefore, it was said that the film was a kind of revenge towards Crawford, and upon learning of this, Bette did not hesitate to join the project.
However, this rivalry reached unimaginable heights when both actresses agreed to work together in the film What Happened to Baby Jane? Said film came to light in 1962 and it was the first and last project that included the performances of both actresses. It introduces us to the sisters Blanche and Jane Hudson, who are stagnant in their careers after having succeeded as child stars. The two live together, and while Blanche is in a wheelchair after a mysterious accident, her sister Jane takes care of her and torments her.
The truth is that the film went down in history for the behind-the-scenes stories more than for the story itself. Even though both actresses wanted to work together, when filming began, they did not hesitate to make life impossible. For example, Joan Crawford's husband was the president of Pepsi, so Bette Davis asked that a Coca-Cola machine be installed in her dressing room.
In turn, Bette took great advantage of the fact that the film had several scenes where the sisters fight and hit each other. For this reason, she did not hesitate to hit her partner's head really hard, who ended up needing a couple of points. Still, Joan avenged this, and during a scene where Bette had to drag her, she placed rocks in her pockets to make herself heavier and create more work for her co-star, who suffered from back problems.
The last straw came when filming ended. What happened to Baby Jane? it became a success and Bette Davis was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. Angry at not being nominated, Joan Crawford offered to pick up the statuette for the winners who couldn't make it to the ceremony. Bette Davis was the favorite to win, and to everyone's surprise, she ended up being beaten by Anne Bancroft, who was unable to attend the delivery. There, Joan Crawford stood up and collected the award in her honor, leaving Davis in shock and anger.
Considering all this, and knowing that it was public knowledge that the actresses did not tolerate each other, it was quite surprising when it was announced that they would be working together again in Calm Down, Sweet Charlotte, a film that would work as a sequel to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. ? with the same actresses but with different characters. However, just a week and a half into shooting, Crawford resigned, as it was already impossible for the actresses to be together. That was how she ended up being replaced by Olivia de Havilland.
For a couple of years, the comments and controversies between the two continued, until in 1977, Joan Crawford died of pancreatic cancer. That did not make Bette Davis sad, but even so, she did not hesitate to feel sorry for her eternal rival, because, despite all the criticism and problems that existed between them, there was something they had in common: hatred on the part of their daughters, who published books that classify them as terrible mothers.
To this day, the rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis continues to make people talk. So much so, that in 2017 a series titled Feud came to light. It had been created by Ryan Murphy and focuses on this iconic Hollywood confrontation. Susan Sarandon was commissioned to play Bette Davis while Jessica Lange played Joan Crawford.
