Billy Wilder: “It’s very difficult to talk seriously about [Marilyn] Monroe.”

Posted on September 2, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder:

It’s very difficult to talk seriously about Monroe, because she was so glitzy, you know. She escaped the seriousness somehow; she changed the subject. Except that she was very tough to work with. But what you had, by hook or crook, once you saw it on the screen, it was just amazing. Amazing, the radiation that came out. And she was, believe it or not, an excellent dialogue actress. She knew where the laugh was. She knew.

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4 Responses to Billy Wilder: “It’s very difficult to talk seriously about [Marilyn] Monroe.”

  1. Robert the Llama Butcher says:
    September 2, 2004 at 1:07 pm

    Laurence Olivier had some things to say about the difficulty of directing Marilyn Monroe (in connection with the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl) in his autobiography that jibe with Wilder’s view, although Olivier wasn’t quite as charitable about whether the trouble was worth it.

  2. red says:
    September 2, 2004 at 1:12 pm

    Wilder promised he would never work with her again, until she was interested in Some Like It Hot, and he was thrilled to get her.

    She was irreplacable. You had to take her with the unprofessionalism – because there was no one else like her. And audiences loved her. Men and women … she was box office gold.

  3. red says:
    September 2, 2004 at 1:13 pm

    I’m a huge MM fan. Can ya tell? :)

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