Monday, November 7, 2011

Michelle Williams and her Week with Marilyn

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams at event of "Blue Valentine" (December 2010)

Michelle Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal attending "My Week With Marilyn" New York Film Festival Premiere, on 11th October 2011

Stills of Dougray Scott and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn (2011) directed by Simon Curtis

Still of Zoë Wanamaker (as Paula Strasberg) and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn


My Week with Marilyn: Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond) Visits Marilyn (Michelle Williams) the Set


Michelle Williams singing and dancing in "My Week with Marilyn": Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Marilyn Monroe circa 1950s Photo by Roy Schatt

Sam Spiegel (producer of "The African Queen", "On the Waterfront") brought Marilyn Monroe's agent Johnny Hyde and the young blonde starlet on the set of "We Were Strangers" directed by John Huston in 1949:
(starring John Garfield and Jennifer Jones). Spiegel asked John Huston to film a silent test of Marilyn.

Huston asked screenwriter Peter Viertel to write a scene for her and John Garfield. So John Huston, cameraman Russell Metty and John Garfield spent a good part of the day filming this brief screen test with Marilyn Monroe (a relatively unknown actress in those days). Spiegel was furious at Huston's insubordination. Indifferent to Spiegel's ranting but appreciative of Monroe's potential,
Huston cast her in a small role for his next film "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1950 (which would launch Marilyn's career). Nobody knows what happened to that test film of Monroe and Garfield; one wonders if John Garfield made a pass at Norma Jean by then.