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Marilyn Monroe was cemented as a silver screen powerhouse by 1955, and she was easily the most bankable contract star for Twentieth Century-Fox. She had starred in a string of commercial successes for the studio, such as Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and How to Marry a Millionaire, to name a few.
One of her more iconic movies, the film version of The Seven Year Itch, was released on her twenty-ninth birthday, June 1, 1955. It was a critical and financial smash, but it also fueled the dumb blonde stereotype Monroe had rode to the top of her stardom. As the nameless upstairs neighbor in the film, she was willingly playing into the notion that her off-screen personality and on-screen persona were one and the same.
Marilyn had grown weary of playing roles she knew were not stretching her skills as an actress. In early 1955, she walked out on her Fox contract after declining yet another stereotypical dumb blonde part in How to Be Very, Very Popular. She had determined herself to pursue her dreams of becoming a serious actress. Leaving her lawyers to deal with the lawsuits brought forth against her by Fox, Monroe set her sights on Manhattan, the home of the legitimate American theatre. She had been invited by acting guru Lee Strasberg to join his Actors Studio as an observer of his lessons.
Monroe would end up studying with the Actors Studio exclusively for well over a year, during which time she turned down a host of scripts, citing them as inferior.
In this thread, I want to dive into Monroe's time with the Actors Studio and its effects on her professional and personal lives.
One of her more iconic movies, the film version of The Seven Year Itch, was released on her twenty-ninth birthday, June 1, 1955. It was a critical and financial smash, but it also fueled the dumb blonde stereotype Monroe had rode to the top of her stardom. As the nameless upstairs neighbor in the film, she was willingly playing into the notion that her off-screen personality and on-screen persona were one and the same.
Marilyn had grown weary of playing roles she knew were not stretching her skills as an actress. In early 1955, she walked out on her Fox contract after declining yet another stereotypical dumb blonde part in How to Be Very, Very Popular. She had determined herself to pursue her dreams of becoming a serious actress. Leaving her lawyers to deal with the lawsuits brought forth against her by Fox, Monroe set her sights on Manhattan, the home of the legitimate American theatre. She had been invited by acting guru Lee Strasberg to join his Actors Studio as an observer of his lessons.
Monroe would end up studying with the Actors Studio exclusively for well over a year, during which time she turned down a host of scripts, citing them as inferior.
In this thread, I want to dive into Monroe's time with the Actors Studio and its effects on her professional and personal lives.
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