“I always thought Teresa Wright was talented and sweet, but kind of an ineffectual limp noodle. She plays the good girl well, and I guess that was my problem. Sure, her screen characters had pluck, but pluck is an anemic version of the charming ballsy-ness of a Stanwyck or the fearless hijinks Irene Dunne might throw down. In movies like The Best Years of Our Lives, I worried that, although clearly a better choice than Virginia Mayo, super he-manly Dana Andrews would eventually tire of Teresa when ingénue curdled into insipid.

Well, I was wrong. Turns out Teresa Wright was smart, sassy, and not to be f****d with.

OK, picture this: It’s the late 1930s and you’re a young woman barely out of high school when talent scouts from the Goldwyn Studios spot you in a play and whisk you away to Hollywood, where you score a part in The Little Foxes with Bette-freaking-Davis, no less. You and I, we’d likely feel a mash-up of lucky, awestruck, terrified, intimidated, overwhelmed, grateful, and scared sh**less. And don’t forget, this is the 1930s when women were to be sometimes seen and never heard.

So — this key clause that Missy Wright made them put in her studio contract is all the more impressive:

“Miss Wright shall not be required to pose for photographs in a bathing suit unless she is in water. Neither may she be photographed running on the beach with her hair flying in the wind. Nor may she pose in any of the following situations: in shorts; playing with a cocker spaniel; digging in a garden; whipping up a meal; attired in firecrackers and holding skyrockets for the fourth of July; looking insinuatingly at the turkey for Thanksgiving; wearing a bunny cap with long ears for Easter; twinkling on prop snow in a skiing outfit while a fan blows her scarf.”

In addition to it being a dame-irific move, it’s also pretty hilarious. She not only doesn’t want to be reduced to fodder for the cheesecake factory, she totally nails the stupidity of what she doesn’t want to do with humor and charm and zero invective. This, girls, is how it is DONE. Like a boss, Teresa! Wow – like a BOSS.

I’d like to have been a fly on the set when, according to legend, Mr. Goldwyn, trying to loosen up Teresa while filming The Little Foxes called to her from behind the camera: ‘Teresa, let your breasts flow in the breeze!’

(My brain hurts just pondering what I would need to do to follow those instructions. Jump up and down? Unhook my bra and throw it behind me whilst laughing manically? Frankly, I’m stumped.)

The good news is: Teresa was nominated for Academy Awards for her first 3 films (The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and Pride of the Yankees). She was the only actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar for her first three films. And until Jennifer Lawrence received her 3rd nomination in 2014, Wright held the record for youngest actor to receive three acting Oscar nominations. AND…her fourth movie was Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, where she got billing above Joseph Cotten! Then, a coupe of years later, she’s the aforementioned goody-two-shoes homewrecker in Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives”… continue reading.

SOURCE: Dame Town

ARTICLE: I Was Totally Wrong About Teresa Wright!