Faye Dunaway which she played Vicki Anderson, an insurance investigator who becomes involved with Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen), a millionaire who attempts to pull off the perfect crime. Norman Jewison hired Dunaway, after he saw scenes from "Bonnie and Clyde" before its release and, like Arthur Penn did with Warren Beatty, had to convince McQueen that she was right for the part. The film emphasized Dunaway's sensuality and elegance with a character who has remained an influential style icon. The role required over 29 costume changes and was a complex one to play. "Vicki's dilemma was, at the time, a newly emerging
Faye Dunaway Pauline Kael raved about Dunaway's performance, stating that she had reached new heights as an actress and surmised that it would be difficult for Dunaway to top her performance as Crawford. Vincent Canby also praised Dunaway, writing that ""Mommie Dearest" doesn't work very well, but the ferocious intensity of Faye Dunaway's impersonation does, as does the film's point of view, which succeeds in making Joan Crawford into a woman far more complicated, more self-aware and more profoundly disturbed than the mother remembered in Christina Crawford's book." Director Sidney Lumet stated that it was "a brilliant, an extraordinary performance. The courage