Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses anti-gay prejudice and racism.

Though Evelyn Hugo is fictional, Jenkins Reid has named three actresses whose stories influenced her character: Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rita Hayworth. All three were huge stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the “big five” studios dominated filmmaking. These studios (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 20th Century Fox) had considerable control over their contracted stars, whom they relied on for ticket sales. Actors’ stardom was perpetuated by media outlets and gossip columns telling stories about their lives, just as is the case for Evelyn Hugo.

Ava Gardner was signed by MGM in 1941, and she rose to fame, eventually being nominated for an Academy Award in 1953 and a Golden Globe in 1964. She had three highly publicized marriages to famous men: the actor Mickey Rooney, the jazz musician Artie Shaw, and the singer and actor Frank Sinatra. Jenkins Reid has cited a book titled Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversation as the initial inspiration for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The book is based on taped conversations from the 1980s in which Gardner tells a ghostwriter about her marriages.