Movies - TV
Why Katharine Ross Was Banned From The Butch Cassidy Set
By ANDREW HOUSMAN
While Etta Place in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was essential to the group chemistry at the heart of the film, her actress was banned from the set when she wasn't filming.
Etta was played by Katharine Ross, an actress who gained prominence for her role in "The Graduate" and proved she could stand on equal footing with her male co-stars.
At the time of filming, Ross was dating the film's cinematographer Conrad Hall. Ross explained in a post-screening Q&A that she took an interest in the camera equipment.
According to Ross, "There was a shot that he [Hall] let me operate sort of an obsolete camera. You had to have an operator for every camera, so it was sort of an extra camera."
The scene Ross operated a camera for was the "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" sequence. It was filmed with a smaller crew when director George Roy Hill wasn't on set.
Ross operating the camera upset Hill. She added, "When we got back to the hotel, the production manager came and told me that I was banned from the set except when I was working."