In the novel “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Holly Golightly is supposed to be just nineteen years old when she meets with Paul. Audrey Hepburn was thirty-one when playing Holly in the 1961 film version. Author Truman Capote envisioned Marilyn Monroe in the part of Holly Golightly. Monroe was initially cast as Golightly, but her drama coach, Lee Strasberg, told her that playing a call-girl was terrible for her image. The film was a huge success, with Monroe’s replacement, Hepburn, receiving Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.
Capote maintained that he based Holly Golightly on Carol Grace (William Saroyan’s former wife and Walter Matthau’s future wife), who had been his friend while living in New York.
Although not visible on camera, hundreds of onlookers watched Audrey Hepburn’s window-shopping scene at the film’s start. This made her nervous, and she kept making mistakes. It wasn’t until a crew member nearly got electrocuted behind the camera that she pulled herself together and finished the scene.
At a post-production meeting following a film screening, a studio executive about “Moon River” said, “Well, I think the first thing we can do is get rid of that stupid song.” Hepburn stood up at the table and said, “Over my dead body!” The song stayed in the picture. The song’s composer, Henry Mancini, found his greatest inspiration in Hepburn. He said, “It’s unique for a composer to be inspired by a person, a face, or a personality, but Audrey certainly inspires me. Normally, I have to see a completed film before composing the music, but with ‘Tiffany,’ I knew what to write for Audrey just by reading the script.”
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