What went down during Gardner and Nichols’ rendezvous at the ritzy St. Regis hotel in New York City depends on who’s telling the story. In Gardner’s version, as told to Peter Evans for his dishy “Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations,” the actress recalls, “He made me cry.” When pressed to elaborate, she says, “He wasn’t very … simpatico.” So Gardner skillfully backed out of the part without saying “no.” “I told him I couldn’t act. That was the same thing as turning it down. I said I was no actress.”
In that same book, Nichols remembers the meeting a little differently. “Theatrical and over the top, she sat at a little French desk with a telephone, she went through every movie star cliché. She said, ‘All right, let’s talk about your movie. First of all, I strip for nobody.'”
Unfortunately for Gardner, the meeting was essentially only a courtesy. Nichols was already set on Anne Bancroft playing the seductive Mrs. Robinson, even though she was a mere six years older than Dustin Hoffman. The age disparity might’ve been odd, but if you can imagine anyone else in that role than Bancroft, you’ve probably never watched “The Graduate.”
