"Twee is whimsy without wit. It's mimsy-mumsy sweetness without any kind of bite. And that's not for me. She can't sing and she can't really act, I'm afraid. I'm sure she was a delightful woman - and perhaps if I had known her I would have enjoyed her acting more, but I don't and I didn't, so that's all there is to it, really."  She added: "It was Cecil Beaton's designs and Rex Harrison that gave it its extraordinary quality. I don't do Audrey Hepburn. I think that she's a guy thing... It's high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted, because it's a very fantastic part for a woman."  Carey Mulligan is in negotiations to play Eliza, while Hugh Grant and Rupert Everett have been linked to the role of Professor Henry Higgins.  Thompson, who won a best adapted screenplay Oscar in 1996 for Sense and Sensibility, plans to give the story a feminist makeover.  In interviews with The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, she explained that Eliza is "sold into sexual slavery" by her father. "I suppose my cheekiness is in saying: 'This is a very serious story about the usage of women at a particular time in our history. And it's still going on today. Yes, OK, it's a wonderful musical, but let's also look at what it's really saying about the world."  Hollywood certainly believed Hepburn could act - she was nominated for five Oscars, winning the best actress award in 1954 for Roman Holiday. On the singing, however, Thompson may have a point. Hepburn's singing voice in My Fair Lady was dubbed by the soprano Marni Nixon.  Thompson, 51, who also won a best actress Oscar in 1993 for Howards End, was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this month. She also has three Baftas but claimed: "I'm typically British, so any kind of pride in an award is not really allowed. If I kept them on the mantelpiece, people would go, 'Oh my gawd! She keeps her Oscars on the mantelpiece! How pathetic!'"  Last week, Thompson raised eyebrows by dismissing the notion that women can have it all as a "revolting" lie.
She is regarded as one of the Hollywood greats. But Audrey Hepburn couldn't    act, couldn't sing and was "fantastically twee", according to Emma    Thompson.