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Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes
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| Leslie Howard was very opposed to playing the
role of Ashley Wilkes. One reason was that he felt that he was too
old for the character written by Margaret Mitchell. More basic was
the character of Ashley Wilkes. Ashley was a dreamer, an artist, an
intellectual, an idealist. He was one more in the long line of
watery weaklings that Howard had been playing all his life. Leslie
Howard was typecast as the troubled man of thought and he didn't want to
play any more of those roles.
David Selznick's proposal to Howard was shrewd and effective. The proposal was a package deal: Leslie Howard would play Ashley Wilkes and in addition, in Selznick's next film, Intermezzo, Howard would be the associate producer as well as the star. Unfortunately, the package was not really delivered. Delays in GWTW shooting left Howard with no time for the producing functions of Intermezzo. He ended up acting in both GWTW and Intermezzo at the same time, darting from one sound stage to the other, changing costumes on the way -- changing from the idealistic Southern gentleman to the idealistic violinist. |
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