Breakfast At Tiffany’s controversies, on set fights and one actor’s regret over his role – the behind the scenes secrets from the classic as it celebrates 65 years since its release

DAILYMAIL.COM • 3h ago

By CHARLOTTE DEAN, ASSOCIATE SHOWBIZ EDITOR 00:01 05 Oct 2026, updated 00:29 05 Oct 2026

Few films have become as deeply woven into pop culture as Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Audrey Hepburn standing outside Tiffany & Co. with a coffee and pastry, the black Givenchy dress, the sunglasses, the cigarette holder and Moon River have become almost inseparable from the image of 1960s Hollywood.

But behind those familiar images was a production full of arguments, improvisation, compromises and unlikely stories.

Blake Edwards fought over his leading man, a Sunday opening at Tiffany & Co. required an extraordinary logistical operation, and a ‘carefree’ party consumed days of filming, huge quantities of food and drink, and even a beekeeper’s smoker.

And some of the film’s most famous elements came surprisingly close to being changed or removed.

These are the stories that tend to disappear behind the finished film – the pieces of movie-making that audiences rarely see.

Some have become Hollywood legends and need a little fact-checking; others are documented in production records, interviews and contemporary accounts.

Together, they reveal that Breakfast at Tiffany’s wasn’t quite the effortless, glamorous fantasy it appears to be – and that some of the most fascinating stories happened long before audiences ever saw Audrey Hepburn arrive at Tiffany’s.

As the film celebrates 65 years since its release, we look at the lesser-known facts about the film….

The Breakfast At Tiffany’s director, Blake Edwards, reportedly ‘begged’ producers not to cast Peppard as Paul in the film.

In Sam Wasson’s Fifth Avenue, 5am, the first ever complete account of the making of the movie, Edwards is quoted as saying: ‘I dropped to my knees on the sidewalk to the producers and begged them not to cast him.’

The director and actor are said to have repeatedly clashed because Peppard would play scenes according to his own interpretation when he disagreed with the direction.

It also says their disagreements nearly became physical on at least one occasion.

Patricia Neal, who played Mrs Emily Eustace, recalled an occasion when Edwards and Peppard were blocking a scene, Peppard wanted to change everything Edwards had planned, and the argument became so heated that she intervened.

Peppard’s ability to ‘overanalysed’ every scene apparently ‘annoyed and unnerved’ Hepburn, according to Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

For Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tiffany & Co. opened its Fifth Avenue flagship on a Sunday in 1960 – the first Sunday opening since the 19th century – allowing Paramount to film inside the store.

Tiffany’s co-operation was unusually extensive. TCM says the company allowed the filmmakers ‘unprecedented access’ to the store’s interior.

The extraordinary one-day operation involved 75 technicians, 24 extras, 20 Tiffany employees, 30 Tiffany executives and additional security, which involved 40 armed guards working on the floor to prevent thievery.

The day’s filming reportedly cost $45,000 because Sunday workers received double time. This was considered an extraordinary amount in the 1960s.

The famous party at Holly’s apartment took roughly a week to film on a Paramount soundstage.

Edwards specifically asked for actors rather than ordinary extras, filling the party with people he knew and performers he thought could improvise.

The production went through 60 cartons of cigarettes, enormous quantities of tea and ginger ale, champagne and enough party food to keep the crowd going – hot dogs, cold cuts, chips, dips and sandwiches.

A beekeeper’s smoker was even brought onto the set to create the thick haze of cigarette smoke.

The scene was largely improvised, and on the final day Edwards replaced the non-alcoholic drinks with real champagne.

Hubert de Givenchy designed Audrey Hepburn’s iconic black satin gown for the opening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, continuing the collaboration that had begun with Sabrina in 1954.

Three identical versions were made for the film. One was later given by Givenchy to French author Dominique Lapierre for his charity, City of Joy Aid, and was auctioned at Christie’s in London in 2006.

It sold for £467,200 (about $923,000) – more than six times its presale estimate and, at the time, a world auction record for a dress made for a film.

Similarly, Holly’s apartment also sold for an eye-watering price-tag.

The Upper East Side townhouse at 169 East 71st Street served as the exterior of Holly Golightly’s apartment building in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Holly’s apartment interiors were actually filmed on a Paramount soundstage in Hollywood.

The four-story brownstone was listed for as much as $10million in 2014 before its asking price was reduced.

It eventually sold in June 2015 for $7.4million.

At the time, the roughly 3,800-square-foot townhouse still had its distinctive green doors and included a library, fireplaces and an enclosed greenhouse.

Mickey Rooney later expressed regret about his portrayal of Mr Yunioshi, the Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

In his 1991 memoir Life Is Too Short, he wrote that he was ‘downright ashamed’ of the role and suggested Blake Edwards wasn’t proud of it either.

Edwards himself subsequently expressed regret about the character. But when a 2008 Sacramento screening of the film was cancelled following protests over Yunioshi’s portrayal, Rooney took a more defensive position.

He said he had been hired to play the character in an exaggerated way, that the cast had enjoyed making the film, and claimed that during the more than 40 years since its release he personally hadn’t received complaints about the performance.

He was more defensive in 2008, after a Sacramento screening of the film was cancelled after there were protests over Rooney’s portrayal.

‘They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it. Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it—not one complaint. Every place I’ve gone in the world people say, ‘God, you were so funny.’

Johnny Mercer initially wrote lyrics for the song under titles including I’m Holly and Blue River before settling on Moon River.

He eventually changed Blue River after discovering that songs with similar titles already existed.

Henry Mancini wrote the melody specifically with Hepburn and Holly in mind, saying that he knew what to write for Hepburn simply from reading the script.

After a preview screening, there was reportedly pressure within Paramount to remove the song from the film.

The famous story that Hepburn responded ‘over my dead body’ is widely repeated, but the surviving accounts differ over whether Hepburn herself said it or producer Richard Shepherd said something similar to the studio executives.

But the gamble paid off, Mancini and Mercer won the 1962 Oscar for Best Original Song for Moon River, and the song also won the Grammy for Song of the Year.

One of the most intimate moments in Breakfast at Tiffany’s sees Holly sitting barefoot on her fire escape, quietly strumming a guitar as she sings Moon River.

The scene feels spontaneous and unstudied, which was exactly the effect the filmmakers wanted. But Hepburn wasn’t simply pretending to play. She put in the work to learn enough guitar to make Holly’s performance convincing.

Hepburn had singing experience, but playing the guitar presented a different challenge. She worked with a guitar instructor during production so that her fingering and movements would look authentic on camera.

The aim wasn’t to turn Hepburn into a professional guitarist; it was to make the performance feel as though Holly herself could genuinely sit down and accompany her own singing.

John Frankenheimer was originally attached to direct when Paramount announced the project in January 1959.

He worked on the early development of the film with screenwriter George Axelrod, but his involvement was short-lived. By 1960, Blake Edwards had replaced him as director.

Later accounts have attributed the change to concerns from Hepburn’s camp and the studio about Frankenheimer and the kind of film he would make.

Edwards, whose recent success included, ultimately became the director – and Audrey Hepburn later credited him with persuading her to take the role of Holly Golightly.

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