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 not breaking into laughter during the shoot, as "the idea of being kidnapped and ravaged by Robert Redford was anything but frightening". The film was a critical and commercial success, and Dunaway's performance, which was praised by the critics, earned her a fifth Golden Globe nomination. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert called her character "the very embodiment of pluck", and said that, "She has three lines of dialogue that brings the house down. They're obscene and funny and poignant all at once, and Dunaway delivers them just marvelously." Dunaway took a break from acting and spent almost