Michelle Williams on Marilyn Monroe and that girl Matilda
Michelle Williams takes on the iconic role of Marilyn Monroe in The Weinstein Company’s critically acclaimed “My Week with Marilyn,” which has earned for Williams a best actress Oscar nomination.
The film is based on Colin Clark’s book of the same title name and chronicles his time spent working with Monroe while she was in England shooting the romantic comedy, “The Prince and the Showgirl,” in 1956.
Williams sat down with journalists to talk about portraying Monroe, shooting her current role of Glinda the good witch in Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful” and her 6-year-old daughter Matilda with late actor Heath Ledger.
Were you aware of Marilyn Monroe and her star power when you were younger?
I was interested in her, but I lost track over the last 10 years or so. I had a poster of her in my room. It wasn’t a picture of her as the icon, it was of her looking like an ordinary joyful girl. So I definitely had some kind of connection.
Did you do your own singing in the film?
Yes and my mother is going to be so excited when she sees this. She always wanted me to sing and dance.
So doing a musical could be in the cards for you?
I’d love to. What’s so liberating about singing and dancing is that it turns your head [around]. You coast on this wave of muscle memory. You literally can’t think while you’re performing. There’s a kind of transcendence to it. I think maybe that’s why Marilyn was so especially talented at it. Her singing and dancing are unparalleled and her musical numbers are breathtaking.
The film used many of the same locations in “Prince and the Showgirl.” Did that add to the production?
There was a lot of synchronicity. We shot in the actual Parkside house [that Marilyn lived in]. My dressing room at Pinewood was Marilyn’s dressing room. The stage where she shot that song-and-dance number was the same stage where I shot mine. That was so special.
Did it ever feel ghostly?
Well, it’s all energy. It’s what you make of it. I like to make things out of nothing! I like to spin things out of thin air, so that stuff works for me.
Did you wear wigs for the part, or grow out your hair?
I wore wigs, but I had to keep my hair really bleached underneath because it would show through the wigs. My eyebrows had to be dark and they were reshaped. I never really felt quite like myself.
After filming, was it hard to let go of Marilyn?
When you work in a way that gets under your skin, it’s not an easy break. You’re left with this hollow space. I wish I could play her again.
Did your daughter Matilda come to the set?
She comes with me everywhere.
How do you balance getting into character and then going home to be a mom?
What works for me is to have a commute from where we live to where I work. So that in the morning, I leave the house behind and walk clean and fresh into my [role]. The same thing on the way home.
You’re shooting “Oz,” playing Glinda. Matilda must love coming to that set.
It’s the best thing, professionally, that’s happened to us. It has brought her on board my work in a way that wasn’t possible with a movie like “Marilyn” or “Blue Valentine.” On those, there was no space for a kid to come visit and be a kid. [With “Oz”] she comes every single day after school because it’s like a playground. She says, “There’s only one good witch and it’s my mom.”
It’s interesting that you said the project was the best thing to happen professionally to “us” not “me.”
Definitely. Every choice that I make is about how it’s going to affect our life—where it films, how long it is, what else is going on in her year and how long we can sustain a period of time where I’m working. When “Oz” came along, it was very clear to me that it was the right decision for us.
“My Week With Marilyn” screens exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma) starting Feb. 29.
