1935年,一文不名的琼·芳登来到好莱坞,在八大公司挨个转了一圈之后,才勉强被派拉蒙相中,在爱情片《贤惠夫人》中扮演一个与女主角琼·克劳馥争锋吃醋的年轻姑娘。此后几年,她都只有演一些名不见经传的小配角的份。真正让芳登时来运转的,是1939年的某次晚会。当时,她与身边一位胖胖的、戴金丝边眼镜的陌生男人兴高采烈地聊天。两人谈到了小说《丽贝卡》,芳登表示自己十分喜爱这本小说,而且认为它很适合拍成电影,但她却不知道自己面前的这个人正是买下了此书电影改编权的好莱坞头号制片人大卫·O·塞尔兹尼克。后者听闻对方对于《丽贝卡》的一番品头论足,顿时对将这本小说搬上银幕产生了更浓厚的兴趣,于是当即问她是否愿意扮演电影《蝴蝶梦》的女主角。此时的芳登,面对大佬如此唐突的邀请,几乎不敢相信这一切是真的。此前只演过一些小配角的她似乎还缺乏信心,显得十分拘谨不安。塞尔兹尼克定睛一看,这神态不正是片中女主角所应该具有的吗?于是当场拍板,聘请她出演《蝴蝶梦》的女主角。然而,在影片开拍前,早早定下的男主角劳伦斯·奥利弗却屡次要求希区柯克和塞尔兹尼克用他当时的未婚妻费雯·丽来担任女主角。奥利弗的理由是,费雯·丽刚刚凭借《乱世佳人》 In 1935, the unnamed Joan Fontaine came to Hollywood, after the eight companies one by one in a circle, reluctantly been Paramount, the love actress “virtuous wife” plays with a heroine Joan Crawford Competing young girl. After a few years, she only played some unknown minorities. Fontaine really make time to run, is a 1939 party. At the time, she chatted happily with a fat, strange man wearing spectacles on his side. The two talked about the novel “Rebecca,” and Fontaine said she loved the novel very much and considered it a good movie, but she did not know the person in front of whom bought the film adaptation rights The Hollywood number one producer David O. Selznick. The latter heard about each other’s repertoire about Rebecca and immediately became more interested in putting the novel on the screen. So she immediately asked if she was willing to act as the heroine of the movie Butterfly Dream. Fontenay at this time, the face of big brother so abrupt invitations, almost can not believe all this is true. She had only seemed to lack some confidence in acting as a minor supporting character before, and she seemed very cautious. Selznick took a closer look, this act of God is not the film actress should have it? So on the scene clap, hired her starred in “Butterfly Dream” actress. However, Lawrence Oliver, an early-stage actor, has repeatedly asked Hitchcock and Selznick to act as his heroine with his then-fiancée, Vivien Lai, before filming began. Oliver’s reason is that Vivienne just by virtue of “Gone with the Wind”