Vivien Leigh travelled to Hollywood, leaving Leigh in London. Goldwyn and the film's director, William Wyler, offered Leigh the secondary role of Isabella, but she refused, preferring the role of Cathy, which went to Merle Oberon. Hollywood was in the midst of a widely publicized search to find an actress to portray Scarlett O'Hara in David O. Selznick's production of "Gone with the Wind" (1939). At the time, Myron Selznick—David's brother and Leigh's American theatrical agent—was the London representative of the Myron Selznick Agency. In February 1938, Leigh made a request to Myron Selznick that she be considered to play the part
Gone with the Wind (novel) because it is thought to contain some degree of pornography. Slavery in "Gone with the Wind" is a backdrop to a story that is essentially about other things. Southern plantation fiction (also known as Anti-Tom literature, in reference to reactions to Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of 1852) from the mid-19th century, culminating in "Gone With the Wind", is written from the perspective and values of the slaveholder and tends to present slaves as docile and happy. The characters in the novel are organized into two basic groups along class lines: the white planter class, such as