Audrey Hepburn a lukewarm reception for starring with Anthony Perkins in the romantic adventure "Green Mansions" (1959), in which she played Rima, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller, and "The Unforgiven" (1960), her only western film, in which she appeared opposite Burt Lancaster and Lillian Gish in a story of racism against a group of Native Americans. Hepburn next starred as New Yorker Holly Golightly, in Blake Edwards's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), a film loosely based on the Truman Capote novella of the same name. Capote disapproved of many changes that were made to sanitise the story
Audrey Hepburn nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. The same year, Hepburn also starred in William Wyler's controversial drama "The Children's Hour" (1961), in which she and Shirley MacLaine played teachers whose lives become troubled after a student accuses them of being lesbians. Due to the social mores of the time, the film and Hepburn's performance went largely unmentioned, both critically and commercially. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" opined that the film "is not too well acted" with the exception of Hepburn who "gives the impression of being sensitive and pure" of its "muted theme",