Tennessee Williams wrote the screenplay and based the character of Serafina on Magnani as Williams was a great admirer of her acting abilities, and he even stipulated that the movie "must star what "Time" described as "the most explosive emotional actress of her generation, Anna Magnani." In his "Memoirs", Williams described why he insisted on Magnani playing this role:"Anna Magnani was magnificent as Serafina in the movie version of "Tattoo"...She was as unconventional a woman as I have known in or out of my professional world, and if you understand me at all, you must know that in this statement I am making my personal estimate of her honesty, which I feel was complete. She never exhibited any lack of self-assurance, any timidity in her relations with that society outside of whose conventions she quite publicly existed...he looked absolutely straight into the eyes of whomever she confronted and during that golden time in which we were dear friends, I never heard a false word from her mouth."