Aaron Tracy

In Tiffany's, Neil plays opposite another legend, Audrey Hepburn.

Again, not easy, especially when she's playing Audrey's competition for the male lead.

When Dahl first meets Neil, she hasn't yet made either of these movies.

Instead, Dahl recognizes her from The Day the Earth Stood Still, an iconic early sci-fi film.

It's playing in a theater within walking distance of Lily and Hellman's apartment the night they're seated next to each other.

Neal's look is also really singular.

She has this rich, reddish hair, very unusual in Hollywood at the time.

She's a broad 5'8", a full 45 inches taller than the biggest stars, like Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

It gives her authority.

She looks like someone you wouldn't want to mess with, which, remember, is exactly doll's type.

But Neil doesn't seem unapproachable, like Taylor or Monroe.

She feels sort of relatable, even in a film like Tiffany's, where she's a wealthy, sharky New Yorker.

And she always stands out for how naturalistic she is.

Her contemporaries lean into melodrama, with that very formal, often very phony, mid-Atlantic accent.

You know the one I'm talking about.

Think Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.

Not Neil.

She's a method actor, trained at the actor's studio under Elia Kazan, along with Newman, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean.

She's also just obviously brilliant.

You can tell from watching her on screen how smart she is, same way you can tell with Emma Thompson or Jodie Foster or Saoirse Ronan.