Sean Ferrer is the son of Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer.
The 43-year-old father of three is a multi-lingual filmmaker and the guardian of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.
He has written a book called Audrey Hepburn -- An Elegant Spirit, and it is an homage to the mother he obviously adored. The book is about a loving relationship between a son and his mother. Audrey Hepburn -- An Elegant Spirit is a great read, though we must say you really only need to meet Ferrer to see how good a mommy Hepburn was.
Ferrer says that people always ask him what it was like to have a famous mother. "And I like my answer, because I get to say, 'I don't know -- I never had a famous mother.' She really gave up her film career to raise us, once we couldn't travel. She was a normal mom. She came to school to pick us up. She took us shopping for books and socks and fixed lunch every day. Just a regular mom."
Ferrer was born in Switzerland. Videos weren't yet invented during his childhood, and he only rarely caught a glimpse or two of any of his mother's movies.
"Our friend Connie Wald, whom we'd visit in Los Angeles, had a screening room in her house and she'd get prints from the studios. So one time we'd see The Sound Of Music. Another time, A Hundred And One Dalmations. And one time we saw My Fair Lady -- and I said, 'I know that person!' "
Audrey Hepburn never brought her work home with her, he claims, and says that acting was for her a second choice. Only after the war and a year studying dance in England did Hepburn finally accept that she was never going to be a prima ballerina. She'd had too many years without training during the war, not to mention poor nutrition all those years in occupied Holland. And, she was told, she was too tall.
Acting became her way of earning a living.
"Being an actress was a form of survival," her son says. And though she became a revered movie star, says Ferrer, she never stopped long enough to bask in her achievements.
"The part that hurt us so much, that we're also so proud of, was that those years with Unicef, she worked so hard. And so she never gave herself a chance to enjoy any of it."
Unicef (and the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund) are now Ferrer's work, too. He says Audrey Hepburn -- An Elegant Spirit contains a veiled call-to-arms. We cannot continue, Ferrer says, to live in a world where 900 million lead comfortable lives and all the rest exist on a dollar or two a day. "And we're still losing 35,000 children a day. It was 40,000 when my mother passed away. A 15% decrease after 10 years is unacceptable. We have to pressure our governments. America, being the big brother, has the responsibility to change things."
Americans are not really familiar with Unicef, Ferrer says. "Our product, to educate 120 million children, two thirds of whom are girls, is a much better product than the Iraq war, I can assure you. And it would only cost 10%, in a year, of what the war cost in the first three months. If you look at the long term, education is the best way to change the course of their history and give them the tools they need."
Ferrer began writing Audrey Hepburn -- An Elegant Spirit soon after his mother died, hoping to get something about her on paper for the next generation and for her own grandchildren. The book has been on The New York Times Top 20 since it was published, but Ferrer isn't sure he'll write again.
"In a way, it would feel like standing on her shoulders to kick-start a career," he says, modestly. "I would feel I would have to earn my way to be a writer. The book is a success because people are still very much enamoured of her."
Ferrer wants it made clear that there's no "dish" in Audrey Hepburn -- An Elegant Spirit. "You are not going to learn any new piece of information," he says. "The best thing you'll get is a wonderful confirmation that the lovely twig everyone fell in love with 40 years ago grew up to be this extraordinary oak tree."
Sean Ferrer's proceeds from this book have been donated to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.
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