Posted on 07/02/2026 10:21:29 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
In the late 1930s, Bergman arrived in Hollywood with one suitcase and no makeup kit, prompting producer David Selznick’s wife, Irene, to ask, incredulously, “You mean you have nothing on your face?” She didn’t. When the actress met the filmmaker, he immediately sized her up, commenting, “Your eyebrows are too thick, and your teeth are no good, and there are lots of other things...I’ll take you to the makeup department in the morning.”
Bergman immediately fought back. “I think you’ve made a big mistake,” she said. “Now you’ve seen me, you want to change everything. So I’d rather not do the movie...I’ll take the next train and go back home.”
After a silent standoff, Selznick relented—and claimed Bergman’s refusal to cap her teeth and pluck her brows as his own original concept, saying, “I’ve got an idea that’s so simple and yet no one in Hollywood has ever tried it before. Nothing about you is going to be touched. Nothing altered..."
"You are going to be the first ‘natural’ actress.”
The producer accompanied Bergman to the makeup studio: “Next morning, I was sitting in the makeup chair and this highly qualified makeup man was looking at me... ‘These eyebrows have got to be plucked...’” According to Bergman, Selznick vehemently rejected the suggestions. “He yelled, ‘Understand this, you are not going to take one eyebrow or one hair away. You are not going to do anything.’" The actress’s first screen test immediately followed: “Ingrid Bergman—No Make-Up—Take 1.” Less than four years later, Casablanca opened.
On screen in Casablanca, Bergman, as Ilsa Lund, is luminous. Her pared back look allows her remarkably natural performance to shine through—and secure her place in film history.
(Excerpt) Read more at vogue.com ...
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Best. Movie. Ever.
Good for her, quite often natural and unplucked is way better.
How Swede it is.
Several weeks ago I was watching the Saturday morning cartoons on MeTV and caught a Bugs Bunny cartoon I’d never seen before: a parody of Casablanca called “Carrotblanca”. It was pretty funny, a spot on homage to the original film.
We’re supposed to believe that the powerful David O. Selznick and the studio fell over backwards for a relatively unknown Swedish actress with no remarkable track record. She could just waltz into Hollywood and set the terms before becoming a star. That’s not how it works.
Ingrid was one of the few women who truly did not require much of any touching up. It did not hurt that she had perfect symmetry in her heart shaped face, posture and bearing that exuded confidence, good bone structure that naturally showed the planes, a strong Swedish jawline and the low eyebrows, that provided a brooding, shadowed look.
Ingrid had many children, but the most famous one was daughter Isabella Rossellini, virtually a clone for her mother’s face. Isabella is a twin, though non-identical. Her sister Isotta had her career as a professor of literature, and as an author.
Isotta did not inherit the famous visage of her mother, Ingrid.
Maybe she gave exceptionally good....I can’t say it.
Beautiful young women generally don’t need makeup.
Now they all have the same surgically sculpted button nose and botox lips.
Very well done.
Any man whose heart has ever been broken by his one true love shouldn’t watch this movie alone.
“Good for her, quite often natural and unplucked is way better.”
My Japanese wife no makeup , no pluck , no nothing . She’s 75 and passes for late 50’s .
He was pretty good in the Caine Mutiny too.
Fun fact, Bergman was taller than him. So in certain shots Bogart had to wear three inch lifts.
Ditto...one of the absolute best from Hollywood...
Bogey, Bergman, Bogey and Bergman...such memorable performances...
That’s the one! :-)
A lot of Generation Xers seem to be like that.
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