Kim Novak has already voiced her concerns about an upcoming biopic starring Sydney Sweeney as the former Vertigo star — but according to a source, the project is bothering her even more behind the scenes.
The film, the source tells the Examiner, will focus on her “deeply complicated” affair with Sammy Davis Jr., which is causing the 92-year-old “a ton of unwanted stress.”
“Kim’s been dreading this project for years,” the source explains of the actress, who retired from showbiz and now leads a quiet life in Oregon. “She’s an extremely private person who likes to stay out of the spotlight and only opens up about her past to a few select people.”
“So to have this extremely sensitive aspect of her past dredged up and dissected by a new generation all these years on has gotten her very shaken and upset,” the source explained.
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Novak famously had an “extremely special” affair with Davis Jr. in the mid-1950s, the source says, adding that “it was way more than just sex.”
However, rumors are swirling that producers of the upcoming film are “twisting that narrative,” as Sweeney, 27, is being told to portray the Vertigo star as a “femme fatale heartbreaker type.”
The former screen legend “hates how a new generation of people will be remembering her, it’s making her want to speak out in detail and correct the narrative while she still can,” the source adds.
Novak has already begun to speak out about the decades-old affair, telling The Guardian that she didn’t believe their relationship was ever “scandalous,” before explaining, “He’s somebody I really cared about.”
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“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,” she told the outlet. “But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all sexual reasons.”
According to Smithsonian Magazine, the couple’s affair was short-lived as they were reportedly forced to break up after Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn threatened Davis for dating his star actress.