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 as the villainous Milady de Winter in Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers", based on Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name, co-starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Charlton Heston. Eventually, producers decided to split the film into two parts: "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" (released in 1974). Critics and audiences alike praised the film for its action and its comic tone, and it was the first in a line of successful projects for Dunaway. Director Roman Polanski offered Dunaway the lead role of Evelyn Mulwray in his mystery neo-noir "Chinatown" (1974). Although its producer, Robert Evans,