{"id":6886,"date":"2007-08-20T08:09:27","date_gmt":"2007-08-20T12:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6886"},"modified":"2010-06-30T11:01:19","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T15:01:19","slug":"want-to-see-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6886","title":{"rendered":"“Want To See Her?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

a beautiful shot from Marilyn Monroe’s last unfinished film.<\/a><\/p>\n

You know, certain cinematographers said that it was so easy to film her and light her because her skin was naturally reflective. Lots of actresses need makeup to pick up all that light – and to have it come across – and of course Marilyn wore makeup – but it wasn’t just makeup that made her look like that – there was something glowing already<\/i> about her skin. There’s a wonderful grainy photograph of Marilyn, 1955, in an acting class in New York. It’s dingy – there’s a bare bulb – a scratched floor. People like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are also in the class. A crowd of people sit in battered wooden chairs, listening to the teacher. Marilyn is just one of that crowd. She’s wearing a trench coat, very plain and simple – no makeup – and I swear, it is as though there is a special spotlight shining down on her. Partly it’s the blonde – your eyes naturally go to the blonde hair – but it’s more than that, and more than the fact that she’s so famous. It is as though she has a key light with her<\/i>, at all times. I read one photographer say that he had noticed a layer of peach fuzz over her face – almost thicker than other people have – and he thought that that was what gave her that luminous look – the fuzz catching the light – there was nothing MATTE about her face.<\/p>\n

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There are also wonderful stories about her walking around in New York completely anonymous – she was able to douse that light (by magic, I’m convinced) so that nobody would ever look at her and say, ‘That’s Marilyn Monroe’. She was walking with a friend through the crowded streets of Manhattan – she had a headscarf on, no makeup, she was wearing jeans, sneakers – and completely disappeared into the crowd. The friend was amazed. This was the most famous most desired woman in the world. How did she turn that OFF so completely? They discussed it a bit. And then Marilyn said, with a wicked grin, “Want to see her?” Meaning: Marilyn with a capital M. I love that she referred to her persona in the third person. The friend said, yeah, let’s see “her”;. So Marilyn took off the headscarf, and – without any makeup – any fluffing of hair – anything external<\/i> – she turned on the light<\/i> inside. And there “she” was. Marilyn Monroe, walking in the grime of 9th Avenue. And slowly – people noticed – and came over – and asked for autographs – and the whole thing ended with a mob scene – Marilyn surrounded by throngs.<\/p>\n

“Want to see her?”<\/p>\n

That’s a movie star. It can’t be taught. Whether it was a small layer of fuzz on her face that picked up the lights … or whether it was something magical within … that’s the key to her mysterious appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a beautiful shot from Marilyn Monroe’s last unfinished film. You know, certain cinematographers said that it was so easy to film her and light her because her skin was naturally reflective. Lots of actresses need makeup to pick up all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[123,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13065,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6886\/revisions\/13065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}