Faye Pulls Up the Shade on an Award Winning Icon

When Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway reunited as presenters and mistakenly announced LaLa Land instead of Moonlight as Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards®.   Viewers selective amnesia kicked in forgetting this infamous duo once ruled Hollywood with their iconic portrayals of Bonnie and Clyde. Or that both were Oscars winners in their own right.  This moment is just one of many associated with a woman who has earned a reputation in Hollywood not only for her powerful screen performances, but for an equally powerful persona off set.

Born as  Dorothy Faye Dunaway, the army child of a father who struggled with alcoholism and raised predominantly by her single mother, this three-time Academy Award®-nominated actor would win for 1976’s Network. The HBO documentary donning her name explores the personal trajectory of her life in concert with many of her film roles seemingly reflecting aspects of Faye’s own personality and the social climate in which they were made.  “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Chinatown,” and “Network,” a film which drew criticism, but also praise, for Dunaway’s portrayal of a headstrong, unsympathetic television producer also drew attention to the actress and her  reputation as a “difficult” artist to work with.

As usual, and on her own terms, Dunaway speaks candidly about her struggles with alcoholism, being bi-polar, her love affairs and the joys of motherhood,while reflecting on her most infamous role in 1981 as Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest,”  a film with such popular success it threatened to destroy her career.

With her on-screen elegance and sense of fashion, she became a style icon, and continues to inspire and influence fashion trends today. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau, FAYE serves as much of a reminder of Dunaway’s ability to inspire generations of filmmakers and actors with her enduring screen charisma. But, also reminds fans and foes that she is mad as hell and refuses to take it anymore setting the record straight once and for all.