Gregory Peck was married to Greta Kukkonen at the time and had three children, but by then his marriage seemed to have run its course. News reports at the time expected to find an icy and distant movie star, but instead he had settled into a villa in the Albano countryside, a few kilometers from Rome, for the shoot, and he loved going personally to the village to shop for groceries and eat ice cream.<\/p>\n
It took Audrey Hepburn just a few takes together to win him over: \u201cIt was like watching a flower suddenly bloom; she was born to play this princess,\u201d Peck said years later. Within a few days, he recognized her talent and called his agent, George Chasin, to tell him: \u201cThe real star of this movie is Audrey Hepburn. Tell the studio I want her name to appear in the credits on the same line as mine\u201d (according to the initial plan, they were supposed to write \u201cfeaturing Audrey Hepburn\u201d). At first, Paramount executives were strongly opposed. But, as Peck recounts, \u201cWe all knew she was going to be a major star, and we\u2019d started talking behind the scenes about the possibility of her winning an Oscar for her first film.\u201d<\/p>\n Audrey Hepburn as Princess Anne and Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley on the Spanish Steps in Roman Holiday<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>Bettmann<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n One of the first scenes they shot was at the Spanish Steps: \u201cThere were at least ten thousand people gathered at the foot of the steps and on the street. The police couldn\u2019t stop them from whistling and making comments. For Audrey and me, it was like performing in a huge amphitheater in front of a packed audience of boisterous spectators. I asked her if she found all this very intimidating. \u2018No, not at all\u2026,\u2019 she replied. She took it with the same calm and serenity a real princess would have shown.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, the locals loved to join in on the set. Peck recalled: \u201cItalians are all natural film actors and participated very directly in everything we were doing. Wyler would say, \u2018All right, that\u2019s a wrap, let\u2019s print it.\u2019 And they might reply, \u201cNo, no, no, let\u2019s do another one.\u201d Or Wyler would say, \u201cLet\u2019s reshoot it,\u201d and they\u2019d say, \u201cNo, no, that\u2019s great!\u201d And Wyler usually took their advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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