"The first time I was in his office was when they called me in to tell me they had changed my name. I had a feeling that if I'd gone along with the name they'd chosen, I'd never be seen again. I'd be swallowed up by that name, because it was a false name: Kit Marlowe"

Kim Novak’s reflection uncovers a layered sensitivity to identity, agency, and the pressures of Hollywood’s machinery. Being summoned to an executive’s office and told that her name would be changed, without her input, evokes a form of erasure, suggesting a deep vulnerability for young performers entering the star system. The industry’s imposition of a new identity, in this case “Kit Marlowe,” is not merely a marketing tactic. It represents an existential threat: the loss of authentic selfhood beneath a manufactured persona.

Novak’s intuition about the name “Kit Marlowe” carries significant psychological weight. The name chosen for her was not just arbitrary; it was deliberately crafted for effect, referencing England’s enigmatic playwright Christopher Marlowe. “Kit Marlowe” is dramatic, anglicized, theatrical, alien to Novak’s Slavic roots and personal history. The dissonance between who she is and the label others want to assign highlights her poignant fear: to submit to another’s idea of who she should be is to disappear entirely. “I’d be swallowed up by that name” is the heart of her anxiety, the loss of individuality, voice, and even memory, washed away in a manufactured celebrity image.

Underlying her resistance is a subtle but vital assertion of autonomy. By refusing the false name, Novak stakes a claim on her own narrative. The episode exposes how Hollywood has historically demanded conformity, even to the extent of rewriting identities to suit commercial interests. Novak’s experience personifies the struggle many artists face, the tension between the pressures to fit a prefabricated mold and the yearning for authenticity. Her refusal to be absorbed into “Kit Marlowe” is a quiet defiance and affirmation of selfhood, echoing the dilemmas faced by countless others whose identities have been threatened or erased by forces of power in pursuit of image and profit.