Lauren Bacall screen test for "To Have and Have Not". Hawks asked his secretary to find out more about her, but the secretary misunderstood and sent Bacall a ticket to come to Hollywood for the audition. After meeting Bacall in Hollywood, Hawks immediately signed her to a seven-year contract, with a weekly salary of $100, and personally began to manage her career. He changed her first name to Lauren, and she chose "Bacall" (a variant of her mother's maiden name) as her screen surname. Slim Hawks also took Bacall under her wing, dressing Bacall stylishly and guiding her in matters of elegance,
Lauren Bacall Her movie career saw something of a renaissance, and she attracted respectful notices for her performances in high-profile projects such as "Dogville" (2003) and "Birth" (2004), both with Nicole Kidman, and in "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004), as the Witch of the Waste. She was a leading actor in Paul Schrader's "The Walker" (2007). In 1999, Bacall starred on Broadway in a revival of Noël Coward's "Waiting in the Wings". Her commercial ventures in the 2000s included being a spokesperson for the Tuesday Morning discount chain (commercials showed her in a limousine waiting for the store to open at the beginning