In the case of champions of forgotten sex symbols you can’t do much better than Quentin Tarantino.
Snubs from the annual Oscars in the Memoriam segment is always uncomfortable, but in 2023 was a Particularly awkward year for the academy. Leslie Jordan, Anne HecheTom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino and more celebrities who had recently been excluded from the ceremony. Late Stella Stevens – a blond bomb shell known for decades of TV and filmAnd who at 83 had died just a month earlier of advanced Alzheimer’s disease – before respect from the industry was always routine.
“I wrote a letter to The Motion Picture Academy,” said the filmmaker Andrew StevensStella’s only son. With hundreds of points to his Name, director, producer and actor make himself as busy as his deceased mother but is best known for showing up in 1978’s “The Boys in Company C.” When he spoke to Indiewire earlier in January, Stevens described his first documentary – “Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet” – after a show at Northwest 360 Winter Fest in Butte, Montana.
“I’ve been Academy member since 1978,” Stevens continued. “My mother was a member all her career. And yet no one responded to me. Not the chairman, not the president, not the executive branch or the actors’ branch. No one replied. “
Stevens summarized the experience as “quite disappointing.” The shocking breach of her mother’s expansive legacy on the screen – not only was Stella the leading lady in Jerry Lewis “The Nutty Professor”, but she also played in “Girls! Girls!” Tight of Elvis, acted for John Cassavetes in “Too Late Blues “, and enjoyed TV programs from” Bonanza “to” Magnum Pi ” – was” frustrating “, he said. It was also the inspiration that Stevens needed to honor her late mother and her complicated experience of working in entertainment in a different way.
“When the story began to develop and tell himself, what emerged was this enigmatic woman who had been part of the old Hollywood but who became very strong and pronounced from the 70s onwards,” said Stevens. “She stood up for what she believed in. She was proud of it, and despite the shame she got from her hometown and the press, she was a great advocate for her and the rights of others.”
As a friend of Marilyn Monroe, Mamie van Doren, Jayne Mansfield and more mid -century sex icons, Stella rose to fame at a time when “casting sofa was very real,” said Stevens. Desperately after money, the young mother arrived in Hollywood from Yazoo City, Mississippi – and met significant stigma after taking nude pictures for Playboy. Her appearance in 1959’s “Li’l Abner” movie saw the actress rough nickname “Dogpatch Playmate” (a joke about the comic book on which the film was based).
“They really capitalized on the film’s release to collaborate with the magazine,” Stevens told IndieWire. According to the documentary, Stella claimed that he had repeatedly tried to buy the pictures from Playboy CHEFFRIEKTER Hugh Hefner-But was “heart broken” when her request was denied.
“It depends on the day and is due to the interview, but she would often say that it was the worst decision she ever made because she was never made seriously after that,” Stevens said. “But on the surface she was still one of the most beautiful women in the world. Jerry Lewis said when he threw for “The Nutty Professor,” he told Execs, “I want the most beautiful girl you have in the studio!” And in walks Stella. Then he said, “You’re Stella Purdy.” He named the character Stella Purdy after my mother. ”
The documentary, who is partly script, paints a lively portrait of Stella informed by intensive archive research Steven’s called “A constant revelation.” The actress’s impressive career and winding personal life (her son revealed a secret deal between her mother and father after They are shared, including events) are framed by the execution of a younger look-alike (Lindsie Kongore). Stand-in Stella quotes old pressure Interviews In addition to new conversations with historians, journalists and other film experts. Stevens admits writing a script for a documentary is unusual but said it was necessary for the discount he needed to finance his passion project in Stella’s home state Mississippi.
“This was a love work, and (the script) ended up being a really good miniature,” Stevens said. “There were some interviews, such as (film critic) Leonard Maltin and (TV host) Sandie Newton, who solved my script in his own words. And so there were others, as Quentin TarantinoWho just went on what key he wanted. He is so knowledgeable and such a fan that I could not have script or paid him to say the things he said. “
The year before Stella Stevens died, Tarantino happened to have the actress in her best -selling book on film criticism, “Cinema speculation.” A friend told Stevens about the director’s preference for his mother, and after joining Tarantino’s agent, they set up an interview for the filmmaker at a hotel in Tel Aviv. . lasting success.
“As Tarantino said in the 1960s, she was the girl opposite Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Glenn Ford,” Stevens said. (In the documentary he reminds to be annoyed as a child when Elvis once ripped her hair.) “But in the 70s she never played innocent again. She was bally and bodily. She was her own woman. If Stella Stevens was in a TV show, it was about Stella Stevens. “
Stella, who leaned into the uprising of her reputation, became a reluctant but powerful sex symbol. That staff eventually worsened by their progressive politics – and the controversial love scene she filmed with Jim Brown for 1972’s “Slaughter.” Vivica A. Fox unpacks the Interracial romance and its impact on pop culture for Steven’s documentary, and emphasized the radical nature of the work that Stella chose in the future. “The Last Starlet” contains more interviews with Stella’s grandson Aubrey Stevens, “General Hospital” actor Kin Shriner, and appreciates who, like Tarantino, recognize Stella’s brilliance.
“My constant complainant who has been in the industry for a long time is that so many people today have no historical context for it,” said Stevens. “If people are in this industry, they owe themselves and they owe it to the art of giving some credibility to the people and the stories that came in front of them.”
“Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet” is still looking for distribution. It will be shown at the upcoming Dallas International Film Festival and Oxford Film Festival in Mississippi.
