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 of that evil that she brings to it, I think that’s just major acting." Although the film became a cult classic as well as one of her most famous characters, Dunaway expressed her regrets for playing Crawford, as she felt "it was meant to be a window into a tortured soul. But it was made into camp." She also blamed the film for hurting her career and almost never agreed to discuss it in interviews afterwards. In 1982, Dunaway appeared in a television adaptation of Clifford Odets's dramatic play "The Country Girl" as the wife of a washed-up alcoholic singer