Breakfast At Tiffany’s censorship claims as Channel 5 axes Mickey Rooney’s Mr Yunioshi
IT IS a double Oscar-winning classic of American cinema that defined Audrey Hepburn’s reputation as a screen icon.
But now Breakfast At Tiffany’s is at the centre of a censorship row after Channel 5 cut every scene featuring co-star Mickey Rooney.
His portrayal of Japanese character Mr Yunioshi has long been condemned as racist, but critics say the broadcaster’s decision to consign the entire role to the cutting-room floor was a ‘dangerous’ rewriting of history.
Rooney wore ‘yellowface’ make-up and buck teeth, taped his eyes and delivered the lines in an exaggerated accent for the role of landlord to Hepburn’s Holly Golightly. It was considered a crude caricature even at the time of the film’s 1961 release. Broadcasters, including Sky have in recent years slapped a content warning on the film before airing it, but Channel 5 exorcised Rooney completely,
Monty Python star turned film director Terry Gilliam criticised the decision.
‘Censorship seems to be a growth industry in Britain these days, but to remove scenes of characters from films that had already survived the critical eye of past official censors seems absurd and dangerous,’ he said. ‘Who are the new censors? Who has given them the right to bowdlerise?’
Hepburn’s son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, a successful film producer, said: ‘You have to look at it from the perspective of people then.
‘That is the big problem today. Everything is looked at within the scope of one lifetime... as if we were the most important point in the story. The film is what it is and you should put a warning at the beginning saying it was made in 1961 and these were the decishe sions made at the time.’
The axing of Rooney’s character has the effect of removing one of Golightly’s most famous lines. When locks herself out of her apartment block, she wakes Mr Yunioshi by ringing his buzzer. With his annoyed response gone, so too is Golightly saying: ‘Don’t be angry you dear little man. I won’t do it again. If you promise not to be angry, I might let you take those pictures we mentioned.’
Further footage of Rooney was removed from a sequence in which Golightly climbs out of her bathroom window to escape an unwanted admirer. In the original, she begins her escape in an evening gown before changing into a bathrobe. In the version aired earlier this month by Channel 5, however, Golightly is already in the robe.
Further scenes which feature Mr Yunioshi on the phone, in the bath and watching Golightly being arrested have also been excised.
Even when the film was released, Rooney’s portrayal prompted criticism, which has grown over the years. Recent commentators have branded it one of the most offensive portrayals of an Asian character ever on the big screen.
Before his death in 2014, Rooney admitted he would have played the role differently had he known the anger it would spark. The movie’s director Blake Edwards, who died in 2010, agreed, once saying: ‘Looking back, I wish I had never done it. I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it’s there...’
Breakfast At Tiffany’s is listed in the US National Film Registry for being ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically significant’ but not everyone is keen. Sir Richard Eyre, a former director of the National Theatre, said: ‘It is terrible apart from Audrey Hepburn. Mickey Rooney’s performance was preposterously offensive. The kindest thing would be to burn the film.’
Channel 5 said it made the cuts but declined to comment further.