“My line was, ‘Hello, Uncle Rhett,’ but three times I kept saying, ‘Hello, Uncle Clark,’” he recalled. But instead of Clark kicking him off set, he pulled Mickey aside and gave him some encouraging words. “He said, ‘You’re right, my name is Clark, but here my name is Rhett.’ He didn’t belittle me because I was a kid. We did the scene again and, of course, it was OK.”
Clark and his leading lady, Vivien Leigh, tried to perfect their characters Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara by rehearsing numerous times together.
“The whole world had a very definite idea of Rhett. [Clark] was terrified of not fulfilling their notion of the character,” Olivia remembered, and Vivien felt the pressure too. “It was her American debut and she wanted to do an excellent job,” Mickey added. And Vivien succeeded!
Once the cameras turned on and Vivien and Clark became their characters, it was very hard not to look away. “You could see it when they were rehearsing. There was a spark,” the Red River star said. “It was a mutual respect between two great actors.”
But even though Mickey has been highly praised for his portrayal as Beau in the movie, he says he’s had enough of Gone With the Wind. “I’ve seen it once,” the actor said. “That’s enough.”
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