A new Amazon series will explore an iconic literary figure — one whom history has cast to the sidelines in favor of her more famous husband. Zelda Fitzgerald — wife of Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald, but so much more than just that — is the subject of new Amazon series Z: The Beginning of Everything. Actress Christina Ricci portrays the vivacious socialite and novelist, and, in a new trailer for the series, expertly channels Zelda's slinky flapper style and scrappy attitude.
Though, one thing you might question about Ricci's performance? The voice. Here's the new trailer, which features Ricci with a unique drawl:
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Though Zelda may forever be associated with the famous social circles of Paris and New York, she grew up in Alabama, and met her future husband at a country club dance in Montgomery. Her voice is routinely presented as a roughed-up Southern Belle with a smoker's rasp. Alison Pill, who portrayed Zelda in Midnight In Paris, gave Zelda a similar voice.
While Zelda has appeared as a character in many works, including the above-mentioned Woody Allen film, Z: The Beginning of Everything places her own story front and center, as opposed to simply F. Scott's "crazy" wife. Zelda, a party girl, had a famously tumultuous relationship with her husband, and spent time in and out of mental institutions. However, her so-called "insanity" was more an illusion of the era and society in which she lived.
Though history remembers F. Scott as one of the greatest novelists in American history, what it often fails to note is that the author lifted entire sections of his wife's diary for The Beautiful and the Damned. He famously wrote down her words for use in dialogue, and even lifted Daisy's line about her daughter being a "beautiful fool" from Zelda's comments about her own child. Call her a muse, sure, but more importantly, she was a talented novelist in her own right whose words were essentially stolen by her husband.
F. Scott was praised endlessly for his work — including the words that he took from his wife — and for the roaring '20s lifestyle which he and his wife kept. According to many reports, Zelda — a loud, unapologetic woman with a penchant for alcohol, parties, and jumping in fountains with her clothes on — was labeled "crazy" when F. Scott could no longer handle her. She struggled with mental health, but whether her issues were as severe as F. Scott made them have been debated. Ultimately, Zelda died in a fire in a mental institution while awaiting electroshock treatment.
Here's hoping that Zelda gets a better treatment in her new Amazon series than history's narrative provides.