Sydney Sweeney’s upcoming biopic Scandalous! will depict the life of screen legend Kim Novak, and Novak herself is now raising concerns about how the movie will handle her scandalous relationship with a fellow Hollywood star.

Novak became an icon thanks to her performances in movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. She also became an object of fascination for gossip rags, thanks to her off-screen relationships with the likes of Frank Sinatra.

Then there was Novak’s affair with Black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., which the pair managed to keep secret from the press. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep their secret from Columbia chief Harry Cohn, who threatened violence against Davis if they did not stop seeing each other.

Decades after Novak’s time as a much-talked-about film actor, the much-talked-about Sweeney will play her in the biopic Scandalous!, but the 92-year-old Vertigo star says she’s concerned about how the film will depict her relationship with Davis (via The Guardian):

“I don’t think the relationship was scandalous. He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look. But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all Sєxual reasons.”

What This Means For Sweeney And Scandalous!

Sweeney’s Novak biopic co-stars David Jonsson as Rat Pack member and Novak paramour Sammy Davis Jr., and is set to mark the feature film directorial debut of Oscar-nominated Sing Sing actor Colman Domingo. An Oscar nomination may indeed be on Sweeney’s mind as the present-day Sєx symbol prepares to portray an iconic woman of the 1950s and 1960s.

It’s yet to be seen if Sweeney’s performance as Novak finds itself on Oscar’s radar, but it’s undoubtedly on Novak’s. The situation calls to mind the issues Quentin Tarantino faced in depicting real-life actor and Manson Family murder victim Sharon Tate in his Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.

Tarantino was taken to task by Tate’s sister for what she feared would be an exploitative depiction of her famous sibling. The film ultimately offered a positive portrayal of Tate, however, even as it re-wrote history to suit the whims of its ever-controversial writer-director.

Despite the occasional controversy over historical accuracy and other concerns, Hollywood refuses to give up its love of the biopic, as evidenced by Sweeney signing up for Scandalous!.

Our Take On Novak’s Scandalous! Comments

That Novak would be concerned about how Sweeney’s film will portray her is completely understandable. Novak indeed worked in Hollywood for decades, and knows how fast-and-loose the movies play things when it comes to showing the lives of real people.

It’s yet to be seen, however, how exactly Domingo, Sweeney and company will portray Novak and Davis in the movie. Perhaps it will be as cringey and shallow as the Vertigo star fears. But it could as easily offer a nuanced view of the relationship, and provide useful insight into what interracial couples went through during the Civil Rights era.

Novak may end up pleasantly surprised by how she and Davis come across in the film, whose тιтle Scandalous! seems to drip with irony. Though it’s always good to reserve judgment in such situations, Novak has every right to raise concerns, just as Sharon Tate’s sister did about OUATIH.