Faye Dunaway had proved to be difficult and many actresses had been considered for the role, including Jane Fonda, Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley, Leslie Caron, and Natalie Wood. Penn loved Dunaway and managed to convince actor and producer, Warren Beatty, who played Clyde Barrow in the film, that she was right for the part. Besides her relative anonymity, Beatty's concern was her "extraordinary bone structure", which he thought might be inappropriate for Bonnie Parker, a local girl trying to look innocent while she held up smalltown Texas banks. However, he changed his mind after seeing some photographs of Dunaway taken by
Faye Dunaway a send-up, a spoof, and I had a lot of fun with Selena (her character)" but later admitted she was furious with the director Jeannot Szwarc, "Every time I tried to do something funny, he wouldn't let me. He said, "you have to be the straight person". I always wanted to do comedy, but it's daunting when you've not done it before." Also in 1984, Dunaway appeared in a television miniseries, "Ellis Island", which earned her a second Golden Globe Award, for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. The following year, she starred in the miniseries, "Christopher