Actress Ellen Burstyn – who plays Marilyn Monroe in a new film which launched in Venice this week – believes the reason we’re still in love with her, 64 years after her death, is the persona she created for herself.
‘It was deep and innocent and sexy and all of those things at once,’ Burstyn said.
But that’s not the only theory. An executive from the firm which controls and profits from Monroe’s image thinks Marilyn’s continuing appeal, to a whole new generation of fans, is down to the fact that she is the ‘anti-nepo baby’.
And in this era, where the nepo crowd are so much in evidence – from Dakota Johnson to Brooklyn Beckham and the Gallagher brothers’ brood – it makes sense.
I caught up with Dana Carpenter, of the Authentic Brands Group, at the Venice Film Festival, where a 17-minute short about Marilyn called Flesh Impact, directed by the president of the festival’s jury Maggie Gyllenhaal, is showing.
‘Marilyn really had an incredibly rough upbringing,’ Ms Carpenter said. ‘When you look at her appeal to a new generation, a lot of people take inspiration from that; that she came from nothing – or worse than nothing.
‘She was a wonderful comedic and dramatic actress, but was always pushing to have more control over her career and her life.’
Dakota Johnson as the younger Marilyn Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film Flesh Impact
Ellen Burstyn recollected that she’d encountered the real Monroe just once, in a nightclub. ‘I thought: “I’ve just been recognised by Marilyn Monroe.” I carried that in my heart’
Marilyn’s estate was sold to Authentic in 2011. This year, to mark what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday, it’s authorised a number of commercial initiatives, including clothing (in partnership with Lee jeans) and a Marilyn Barbie doll from Mattel (the seventh).
There are continuing ad campaigns featuring her with Chanel perfume, Tiffany and Blancpain watches.
Ms Carpenter agreed that AI image generation has made their job protecting Marilyn’s image and legacy like ‘whack-a-mole’ at times, stomping out the fakes.
As to whether Authentic will ever authorise a movie ‘starring’ an AI Marilyn, it’s not been ruled out. ‘We will see how things evolve,’ she said.
‘It is not part of what we’re doing for her 100th birthday, when we’re trying to create a new family of fans.’
However, Gyllenhaal revealed that an AI Marilyn had almost featured in Flesh Impact – the conceit of which is imagining that Marilyn did not die.
Instead, aged 100, she walks into an audition room (played by 93-year-old Burstyn).
‘I did try working with AI on this project,’ said Gyllenhaal.
‘I have a 100-year-old Marilyn Monroe; and then I also have flashbacks to Marilyn when she’s in her 30s. I have Dakota Johnson playing her, who is an incredible artist in my opinion.
‘The people who commissioned this project asked me to use AI, and I went for it. I was like: ‘All right, I’m curious. I don’t know. Let’s see.’ And it fundamentally did not work.’
Gyllenhaal explained that she’d attempted to use AI to place the likeness and face of Monroe over Johnson.
‘We worked very hard at it, and in the end threw it away because what was coming through Dakota playing Marilyn Monroe was so much more moving, human, alive.’
Burstyn this week recollected that she’d encountered the real Monroe just once, in a nightclub.
‘She was such a magical creature … And then she looked at me, and nodded … I was very early in my career, and I thought: “I’ve just been recognised by Marilyn Monroe.” I carried that in my heart.’
Burstyn was also close to Monroe’s masseur and confidant Ralph Roberts, who said Marilyn told him ‘her whole persona was a construction; that was not the way she was at all’.
A STAR is born. A star with hairy legs!
Singer Phoebe Bridgers ruled the red carpet in Venice this week, in diaphanous McQueen
Singer Phoebe Bridgers ruled the red carpet in Venice this week, in diaphanous McQueen.
She features in the film Primetime, which stars Robert Pattinson (on excellent form) as Chris Hansen, the host of American TV show To Catch A Predator.
Before her very polished appearance on the red carpet in this grey dream of a dress, Bridgers rocked up at the press conference in a severe Gucci suit, which revealed bare, unashamedly unshaven legs – and a tattoo.
The 32-year-old from California admitted she felt intimidated by the filming process (she has no acting training or experience).
‘I was like: ‘No way!’ I just can’t get over being natural with something that I already know is happening.
‘But it turns out that working with these incredible people makes it much easier. I thought I was going to wither, but it was so fun and free.’
Pattinson, for his part, had nothing but praise for his four-time Grammy winning co-star. ‘She’s so relaxed always, and so good at improvising. She didn’t seem nervous at all.’
The British star darted in and out of Venice, because he’s now filming The Batman: Part 2 back in London, and was not in evidence at the post-premiere party, held on a superyacht.
Meanwhile, To Catch A Predator’s real presenter, Hansen, is on the warpath over the film’s depiction of his work on the show, which aired on NBC from 2004-2007.
He’s called it ‘an insult to the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators’.
Scott’s the new Oscars hot tip with Hamlet
Andrew Scott pictured in Hamlet in 2017
Andrew Scott’s amazing performance in the film Elsinore – portraying actor Ian Charleson, who was starring in Hamlet on stage while, unbeknown to everybody, dying of Aids – set the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado alight this week.
So mighty and universal were the raves from critics there that the shockwaves were felt here, in Venice.
Word quickly spread that the Irish actor, who many felt was unlucky to have missed out on an Oscar nod for his 2023 film All Of Us Strangers, looks to have the Best Actor category sewn up.
In one of those cruel showbusiness twists of fate, the cognoscenti in Italy had only just finished anointing veteran actor John Malkovich as this year’s Oscar front-runner, thanks to his incredible performance as a CIA agent (who is also dying) in the wonderful film Wild Horse Nine.
When that premiered in Venice last week, Malkovich was actually asked at the Press conference if he was preparing his Oscars acceptance speech – talk which he batted away graciously.
The race for that golden statuette next March looks like the tightest in years, with some still advocating for Matt Damon in The Odyssey and Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary – both massive commercial hits.
There’s a contingent which reckons this is Tom Cruise’s year, in the out-there comedy Digger, which premieres at the end of this month.
Having seen the trailers, and the efforts to keep the movie away from critical scrutiny, I am not so sure.
Elsinore will be the opening night film of the BFI London Film Festival on October 7, kicking off the event in strong style.
Scott wowed London theatregoers with his own Hamlet in 2017, but this film tells the story of one of the greatest Hamlets in history, when Ian Charleson took over from Daniel Day-Lewis at the National Theatre in 1989.
The actor – most famous for his role as Eric Liddell in Chariots Of Fire – knew he was dying of Aids, and succumbed two months after the curtain came down, aged just 40.
Said Scott: ‘When you’re talking about ‘to be or not to be’ – ‘do I live or do I die’ – Ian is not talking about that as an almost. It was an inevitability at that stage that he was going to die.
‘The idea that Ian was doing this when he was so sick is still, to me, just completely mind-blowing. And his decision to do it was just incredibly courageous.’
He added: ‘Being a gay actor, it’s still so moving to me that I get the opportunity to play a part that Ian and his contemporaries would not have gotten while they were working actors.
‘I wanted people to be able to understand that he was trying to live – it’s not about fetishising his death.
‘He was so full of life and fun, and he did this extraordinary thing.’
Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are having an Eyes Wide Shut moment with their new film Bunker (pictured at the premiere on Tuesday)
Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are having an Eyes Wide Shut moment with their new film Bunker.
In it, the happily married couple play an unhappily married couple, whose troubled union is put under further strain when the architect husband takes on a job building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire.
The film is written and directed by Florian Zeller, who cites Stanley Kubrick’s picture – which starred the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (and was widely panned on its release) – as his inspiration.
‘I loved Eyes Wide Shut,’ Zeller said. ‘This ambivalent proposition presented to the audience, where you’re not quite sure what you’re being invited to watch. Is it fiction? Is it another version of fiction? Where is the line between reality and fiction?
‘That permeability, between reality and fiction, seemed to me a truly fascinating project.’
Bardem was naturally asked if he and Cruz ever argued about work. ‘No, no, never,’ he replied.
Sitting at his side, Cruz laughed and teased: ‘I know you for more than 30 years! Imagine if we had never had an argument.’
