My Week With Marilyn, a film that aims to portray the tense interaction between Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier during production of The Prince and the Showgirl, will be coming out in October and there is lots of buzz in relation to whether Michelle Williams is able to adequately portray the iconic blonde. Many of the Fashion Spot’s forum members are confident that Michelle’s acting abilities will result in a triumphant performance.
“At this point,” wrote Wolkfolk, “I believe that Michelle can play everything. She’s truly an incredible actress.”
“I totally agree,” sprout posted in reply. “I adore [Michelle] and am time and time again floored by her immeasurable talent, but people tend to be a lot more critical when actors play real people.”
Sprout has a good point; there is an inherent risk in portraying an actual person, but for actors that risk can sometimes come with great reward. So many Oscar-winning performances have been the result of actors playing actual people (Christian Bale in The Fighter, Colin Firth in The King’s Speech, Sean Penn in Milk, Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, Helen Mirren in The Queen, Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, to name a few).
Not Plain Jane will wait to see the film before forming an opinion. She posted, “I will need to see it; I have watched most of Marilyn’s films, have read two biographies about her, seen various documentaries. So it may be difficult for me to see Michelle as her. But I am open to it.”
Iluvjeisa wasn’t convinced by the images that have been released thus far. “She really does not make a good Marilyn,” she declared.
Littlepaperstars disagreed and shared some inside information. “They haven’t even released a trailer yet, let alone the film so it’s a bit early to judge whether or not she’s ‘a good Marilyn.’ Having seen some of the filming, I think you might be surprised. She’s not a natural fit for the part physically, but I think her performance will capture the frailty of Marilyn at that point in her life. And it’s a film with an incredible cast for her to bounce off.”
The debate is sure to continue, and I’m not sure about everyone else, but Michelle’s advocates have managed to convince me that the film is worth a look. I’m definitely starting to look forward to taking in the Michelle-as-Marilyn performance.
Images: justjared.com, awardsdaily.com via the Fashion Spot forums.
