“She grudgingly agreed that she was not quite doing it the way they wanted her to sing it. “That was her idea of being very wicked,” recalled Nixon. The next day she returned, and apologised for her “wicked” behaviour. “Somewhere”? “I Feel Pretty”? “I Could Have Danced All Night”? “Getting to Know You”? All Nixon.Įventually, it was broken to Hepburn that despite all the training, rehearsing, recording and retakes, almost none of her singing would be used.

Referred to as “American cinema’s most unsung singer” by The New York Times, Nixon not only did all of Wood’s singing for West Side Story, but Hepburn’s for My Fair Lady, Kerr’s for The King and I, and Monroe’s – though only for one particularly tricky line – in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

You probably don’t know Marni Nixon’s face, but you will know her voice – a trilly, gleaming soprano that adapted to suit whoever’s mouth it was supposed to be emerging from: Natalie Wood Audrey Hepburn Deborah Kerr Marilyn Monroe. Then they turned to Marni Nixon – the woman who, unbeknown to the film’s star, would be re-recording all of Maria’s songs – and winked. 'But her mission was to give joy to the world in another way, so maybe it was lucky.Oh Natalie, it’s just wonderful – absolutely wonderful.” That’s what Hollywood producers told Natalie Wood as she belted out her songs as Maria in 1961’s West Side Story. Maybe she would have been a good dancer, not a great dancer,' Ferri continued. When a Financial Times reporter asked ballerina Alessandra Ferri, who appeared in the 2020 documentary Audrey, if Hepburn could have made it as a dancer, Ferri replied 'probably not.' 'Very few make it. She took ballet classes throughout the show's run, and appeared, dancing on pointe, in the drama film Secret People the following year. Still, she refused to hang up her pointe shoes, even while starring in the hit Broadway play GiGi in 1951. Nor did she have the ideal ballerina proportions: She stood at five feet and seven inches, with size 10-and-a-half feet. 'I didn't have anywhere near the technique that other girls my age had,' Hepburn said later. According to Financial Times, Rambert later told her that she could not make it as a professional ballerina. In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, Hepburn won a scholarship to Marie Rambert's ballet school in London.

Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris