My Week with Marilyn starring Michelle Williams in the role of a lifetime playing the iconic but tragic Hollywood superstar Marilyn Monroe, has completed shooting. The film is drawn from journal entries and memoirs of Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier who witnessed the strained relations between the two stars on the set of the 1957 movie The Prince and the Showgirl. The two hoped the film would benefit their careers in different ways, Marilyn hoped to attain a more serious image where Olivier hoped to boost his career. The film was somewhat poorly received, however Clark‘s journal of events made the production all the more unique.
Colin Clark came from an upper class family and spent his days after college as a gofer and assistant director and came to know the bombshell actress quite well. At the time, the newly married Marilyn was having problems with her playwright husband Arthur Miller which contributed to her erratic behavior and late arrivals to the set, causing headaches for Laurence Olivier who was starring in and directing the movie. When Miller returned stateside his absence allowed Clark to show Marilyn the finer side of England and that time spent is the basis for the movie.
When Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail spoke with Williams, she revealed that she was terrified of tackling the role of Marilyn and at first told director Simon Curtis and producer David Parfitt ‘a resounding no’.
She explained how those differences between her and the iconic figure made her finally agree:
I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist, eventually. Physically and vocally, everything about her is different from me. I’ve kind of gone to school and had teachers to help me understand Marilyn, so I could project an essence of her.
She added how developing the character made her see the different sides to Marilyn and it challenged her to find a balance:
When I first approached the part, I thought that there were three, even four parts to Marilyn… It rearranges you, it shifts your molecules, lifts you up, spins you around, puts you back down and you’re not quite the same, for better or for worse…
Michelle joked how it was hard to shrug the Marilyn persona:
I feel like we live together… At a certain point, something else does take over. I don’t quite feel myself these days.
Ironically the film was shot at Pinewood Studios where The Prince and the Showgirl was made 50 years earlier.
During the set visit, Baz was able to get a look at some of the footage shot by cinematographer Ben Smithard. He was astounded by her performance, from ‘the lightness of touch’ playing the comedic aspects of the showgirl Elsie, to the ‘poignancy of Norma Jean’. Reactions have been similar with insiders extremely positive to her portrayal of the icon. If rumor has it, she may be a contender for the Best Actress category.
Emma Watson
Also making an appearance is Emma Watson in her first role since the last Harry Potter. In the film she plays Lucy, a wardrobe assistant who catches Clark’s eye. Her scenes only took a few days to shoot so as not to interrupt her studies but the young actress with a bright career a head of her was ecstatic to be a part of the new film:
It’s amazing to play a role that’s in a different time period – the 50s are so much fun and I loved wearing the costumes.
Though she said how some of the costumes were harder to get used to:
I certainly felt more feminine – they were really about curves and a waist, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be more womanly?’… I say that, but I was wearing a waspie, a 50s version of a corset, and I certainly wouldn’t last very long in one of those.
Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark
Most of Emma’s scenes were with Eddie Redmayne, who plays Colin Clark who later became an accomplished writer-director .
Eddie was just such a delight to work with, such a generous actor… It’s a great little role, I’m really thrilled to be a part of it.
She also mentioned how she got to see a glimpse of how the film was coming together:
Harvey Weinstein showed me the trailer before I went off set, and it’s going to be good.
Appearing in the main role of Laurence Olivier is Kenneth Branagh, brought in to replace Ralph Fiennes who was making his Shakespeare adaptation, Coriolanus.
Branagh was also stretched with post production still needed on his comic book flick Thor, so he was spending a few days at Pinewood then flying back to the states.
Michelle Williams as Marilyn and Dougray Scott as Miller
Playing Olivier’s then wife Vivien Leigh is Julia Ormond who took over when Catherine Zeta-Jones dropped out and Dougray Scott plays the troubled Arthur Miller.
Rounding out the cast is Judi Dench as Sybil Thorndike, Philip Jackson as her bodyguard, Dominic Cooper as Marilyn’s personal photographer Milton Greene, and Derek Jacobi as the Queen’s librarian and Clark’s godfather.
My Week With Marilyn will be released and distributed in 2011 – 2012 by The Weinstein Company.
via: Daily Mail Belfast Telegraph
Take a look at Marilyn Monroe from August 1953, when photographer John Vachon from LOOK magazine was granted full access to the starlet whilst on the set of River of No Return. Whilst only three of the pictures were published, the rest of the negatives from these intimate photo sessions were then filed away for nearly 60 years .
Courtesy: Dover Publications, head over to their website for more info Marilyn, August 1953: The Lost LOOK Photos. Thanks to THR
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