 Laurence Olivier saw Leigh in The Mask of Virtue , and after he congratulated her on her performance , a friendship developed . Olivier and Leigh began an affair while acting as lovers in Fire Over England ( 1937 ) , but Olivier was still married to actress Jill Esmond . During this period , Leigh read the Margaret Mitchell novel Gone with the Wind and instructed her American agent to suggest her to David O. Selznick , who was planning a film version . She remarked to a journalist , " I 've cast myself as Scarlett O 'Hara " ; and The Observer film critic C. A. Lejeune recalled a conversation of the same period in which Leigh " stunned us all " with the assertion that Olivier " won 't play Rhett Butler , but I shall play Scarlett O 'Hara . Wait and see . " 
