7 Things You Should Know About Roman Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby’

5. There was no love lost between John Cassavetes and Polanski, both writer/directors, but “Rosemary’s Baby” was Roman’s film.
Cassavetes’ “Faces” came out the same year as “Rosemary’s Baby” and he and Polanski tangled often. Cassavetes, prone to improv in his own work, didn’t love his experience on the film. “John wanted to improvise and John wanted to move around,” Farrow explained. “And Roman said no. And so, I’m oversimplifying, but over time, the tensions between the two styles of acting and directing, you had two superb actor/directors…the tension became more and more.”

Polanski conceded as much. “John Cassavetes was not my best experience I must say,” he said. “He didn’t feel comfortable in his role I think. When an actor has not problem with the part, he is happy and he is kind to the crew, the director, to everybody around you. When an actor struggles he becomes a pain in the ass. Cassavetes was a pain from time to time. I can’t say he was difficult constantly, but he had problems when we tried to dress him up, for example. He was comfortable in sneakers. You took his sneakers, he had problems with his acting.”

According to Ed Park’s excellent Criterion piece, in her 1997 autobiography, Farrow wrote, “John became openly critical of Roman, who yelled, ‘John, shut up!’ and they moved towards each other.” Actor Ruth Gordon‘s consummate professionalism, put a stop to it, but the ill-will lingered for years. “Yes, he really was ill at ease. But perhaps he’s a little bit too Actors’ Studio to play a character. What he knows how to play best is himself,” Polanski said in an interview from around 1969. And Cassavetes <href=”#v=onepage&q=you%20can’t%20dispute%20the%20fact%20that%20he’s%20an%20artist%2c%20and%20yet%2c%20’rosemary’s%20baby’%20is%20not%20art&f=false”>countered with, “You can’t dispute the fact that he’s an artist, and yet, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ is not art.”

Polanski is more generous to Cassavetes on the extras. “I liked John. He was not the favorite of the studio, but I suggested him and we hired him on my request,” Polanski said. “It’s not like he was thrown upon me.”

6. Actors such as Tuesday Weld, Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson were considered for the leads at first.
Polanski’s first choice for the lead part was the “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” star but Evans wanted Mia Farrow. “After many meetings Polanski and casting fights, he wanted Tuesday,” Evans said explaining that Polanski was reluctant because she was on the TV show “Peyton Place” and this made him slightly uncomfortable. “I imagined someone more all-American, milk fed,” Polanski said. “By the way that’s how Ira Levin describes Rosemary [in the book]. Mia was more fragile, more baby-like, but I auditioned a few actresses, but finally I thought to myself, ‘There’s nobody better.’ And I knew how much Bob [Evans] was counting [on me casting her]. He thought she was very talented and he was right.”

Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson were both suggested for the part that Cassavetes eventually landed. “John wasn’t our first choice,” Evans said. Unfortunately, however, Paramount was suing Redford at the time for another matter. “Redford was [our first choice]. He was the type we wanted, all American, very straight type. John Cassavetes was not ordinary casting. While he was an extraordinary actor, he had a different interpretation of it and Roman and he… there was no honeymoon.”

7. Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow divorced over her commitments to the movie.
Before she took the role, she asked her husband at the time, Frank Sinatra, what he thought. He immediately said, “I can’t see you in the part,” which immediately gave her doubts herself. She wasn’t sure she could pull it off.

Months later, when she finally took the role, she was urged to leave the film, because as it was running beh behind schedule it was conflicting with other parts she was supposed to take. One of them was “The Detective,” starring Sinatra. And the hot-headed singer-turned-actor was becoming extremely impatient. “In the end my husband said, ‘It’s either ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ or me,’ ” Farrow recalled of his ultimatum. “Every weekend I was flying to New York [shooting had moved to the Paramount lot in L.A. by this point] and trying to make peace. But he was Sicilian, and it was about doing what he wanted. I loved him and we remained friends until the day he died, but I couldn’t leave the movie.”

Farrow explained that she came from an acting family with parents who would never walk out on a movie if it was incomplete and that work ethic was deeply instilled in her. “It was never in question,” she said of leaving the movie, “But it was an agonizing thing and I just hoped he didn’t mean it.” Sinatra sent his lawyer to L.A. and in the middle of a scene handed Farrow divorce papers. “I just signed everything through a blur of tears. I don’t know how I [still shot scenes] that day.” Evans was so upset by Sinatra’s rashness that they didn’t speak for four years and the producer said things got so heated between them that before he went to a restaurant, he would call the maitre d’ and make sure the star wasn’t already dining in the same place.

Evans would have his revenge. “The Detective” and “Rosemary’s Baby” opened on the same day in June, 1968, according to Evans*. “ ‘The Detective’ did good business, but ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ was a blockbuster.”  (*Wikipedia says they opened two weeks apart).

“Rosemary’s Baby” is now available on DVD and Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection. Watch Criterion’s three reasons to watch the film (as if you need them) below.