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Harper Lee: Life of a Writer 11 on the film, insisting that his role of Tom be played with upright dignity, not lapsing into shuffling stereotype. The screenplay often changed the focus, characters, and action of the book in critical ways, although it was Nelle Harper’s opinion that the final movie was the best rendition of a film from a book she had ever seen. The social message of the novel was emphasized in the film and many of the children’s scenes were cut key scenes and characters were cut, among them, Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose (first included and later cut), the missionary society, and the grade school teacher. Gregory Peck strongly suggested after the first shooting was complete in June of 1962 that the scenes focusing on Atticus and trial receive greater attention. The film premiered in Los Angeles during the Christmas season of 1962, opening in New York City in February of 1963. Shortly before, Amasa C. Lee had died. In the spring of 1963, To Kill a Mockingbird was nominated for eight Academy Awards and eventually won three, best actor, best adapted screenplay, and best art direction. Nelle Harper’s Aversion to Publicity Nelle Harper was not prepared for the press’s ardent attention to her personal life. She hated it, and it continued unabated to the end of her life. She would sometimes go to Monroeville or the second houses of New York City friends where it was harder for her to be reached, and she tried to keep her Manhattan address and phone number secret. (Upon sending her address to a friend, she cautioned, “read, memorize, chew up this address and swallow it.”) Her decision not to give interviews or speeches led to the mistaken and widely held idea that Nelle Harper was a recluse. She was not. She had a wide circle of friends, chiefly in New York City, Tuscaloosa, and Monroeville. She was not much of a party-goer, but she was social, visit- ing with her good friends, playing cards, golfing, going to museums, con- certs, plays, and ball games, and traveling. She spent much of her time in various New York City libraries. And she wrote. Despite Nelle Harper’s less than satisfactory experience as a student at the University of Alabama, she made close friends in Tuscaloosa. They included Jim McMillan, John Luskin, and Doris Leapard, whom she would come up to visit when she made trips to Alabama. Luskin was her drinking buddy. McMillan, a linguist in the English Department and a founder of the university press, could offer her advice about publishing and reminisce about the old days when she was in school. Doris Leapard’s great attraction was that she was an artist and from New York. In short, Nelle Harper seemed to have had a full, engaged life.