With all the information that has been published about Leigh since her death, it is difficult to resist pointing out similarities between her real life experiences and those of the characters she played on screen. She suffered from bipolar disorder for most of her adult life, which resulted in breakdowns and institutionalization, including a widely reported incident on the set of Elephant Walk (William Dieterle, 1954) for which she, then 40, was replaced by 22- year-old Elizabeth Taylor, thus having the literal experience of being replaced by the next big thing. In 1960, she and Laurence Olivier went through a high-profile divorce after 20 years of marriage and Leigh was painted as a victim of age. “This is Vivien Leigh Today,” read a headline in Modern Screen. “‘After living half my life with Larry, he suddenly left me for a younger woman.’” On screen, the traumatic experience of being left alone at a vulnerable place in her life was conveyed through her performances as Karen Stone and Mary Treadwell. In playing these characters, Leigh appears to exploit her own age and experiences in order to reveal the problems faced by older women who still desire but suddenly find themselves undesirable.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone dramatically plays off of Leigh’s image as a celebrity. Her character, Karen Stone, is a stage actress who finds herself in a moment of crisis where she suddenly realises she is too old to play ingénue roles. This point is dramatized through a series of layered images. The first glimpse we get of Karen is on a display board outside the theatre, announcing her appearance as Rosalind in a new production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The face that stares out from the advertisement depicts Leigh/Karen frozen in time as the youthful star audiences have known and loved for years. Our curiosity is piqued when a group of middle-aged theatre-goers stand outside during intermission and ask, “My God, what’s happened to Karen Stone?” and then we learn the answer: Karen is 45, “and then some.”  The shot cuts to Karen’s dressing room where she is preparing for her next curtain call. She sits at her dressing table, her back to the camera, and we see her framed in her vanity mirror, applying her make-up and wearing a brown wig. This image of Leigh/Karen, like the image in the previous scene, recalls the star in her younger days. It is only when the play is over and Karen emerges from the dressing room, that the issue of age becomes visibly apparent. Although elegant, she is grey-haired and a medium close-up shot illuminates the bags under her eyes. In contrast to Streetcar, there is no mention in the press of Leigh going to great lengths to look older for the role (aside from the rather unflattering grey wig). She is not afraid to let her true age show (she was 47 when the film was released). This is emphasised further by the juxtaposition of Leigh and newcomer Warren Beatty, who was 24 years her junior. 

© kendra 2011 I’ve managed to get this thing down to about 3400 words. In hindsight, this chapter really could have used a huge dose of editing before I turned it in, lol