In 1939. after years of struggling to become a famous actress and prove to the critics that she was more than just a "beautiful face", she was chosen to play the role of Scarlett O’Hara, one of the most famous female roles of all time in an epic movie "Gone With the Wind”. At the time, the producer, David Selznick, had already started to look for the actress to play the role of a beautiful, southern belle, and fortunately for Vivien, his brother, Myron Selznick, was her London theatrical agent. Myron, though, thought that she wasn’t good enough to play the role, so Vivien furiously went to LA to be with Olivier and to convince Selznick that she was indeed the right choice. Laurence was also trying to win the part of a main hero Rhett Butler but lost the part to Clark Gable (Figure 6).
Vivien was able to set a meeting with David Selznick, and after reading a scene from the script, she had convinced both him and director George Cukor that she was a "true" Scarlett O’ Hara. Shortly after they started filming, Cukor was replaced by Victor Fleming, with whom she often quarreled, so she and her co-star Olivia de Havilland secretly met with Cukor to discuss about how to play their parts. She befriended de Havilland, Clark Gable and his wife Carol Lombard, but resented Leslie Howard, who played one of her love interests in the film. She was often required to work seven days a week, late into night and apart of that she was prevented from seeing Olivier because at the time both of them were married to another person and that threatened to harm the publicity of the film. An interesting fact is that Clarke Gable worked a total of 71 days and earned over $120.000. Vivien, on the other hand, worked 125 days but received only $25.000. Vivien was nominated for an Oscar for her role of Scarlett O’Hara and in 1940. she won her first Academy Award, becoming the first British actress to have won the award (Figure 7). Finally she earned the respect and glory she had always wanted to have.