"All people ever see is Marilyn Monroe. As soon as they realize I'm not her, they run."
(How do I as a viewer engage with the character Marilyn?)
I personally think that Marilyn is a misunderstood character. Everyone expects her to be a serious woman because of her success, but no one really makes the effort to try and understand her as a human being. Especially on set and with all the production members, she feels very insecure and constantly needs reassurance from her acting coach Paula, and the obvious disappointment of some people on set create even more pressure to be the Marilyn everyone exspects.
In the spotlight of everyones attention, she knows how to fulfill the stereotype of being the sexy, naive blonde woman and she embrasses the new identity she has created herself. Although she knows how to pose and show her body, she does not know how to show what is going on inside of her, so no one seems to take her seriously. What people often do not get is that behind all the show is still is a personality and feelings that can get hurt. In the end it is just a new identity that hides the real one from the world of fame.
Instead of thinking of her as an annoying and attention seeking character I feel empathy for her. I feel sorry for the way the lets other people make her feel, but even more for the way she makes herself feel. She is full of insecurities because no one ever told her how to stand up for herself. Moving from family to family and without a mother to tell her how truly amazing she is, she never learnt anything about true friendship or love, never had the experience of real trust and there has never been anyone to guid her to be herself and loved her for the way she was and not for Marilyn and her success.
On the one hand she is that very insecure woman who trusts others far to easily but on the other hand she totally knows her effect on the male population. Growing up as this naiv woman, the only way to cure her self doubts are compliments and because of her effect on man she always thought that these compliments are a way to make her feel better, but truly they make it worse. She is not seen as a person, but as an object which is nice to look at and supposed to be sexy all the time and because she was never told about her true worth as a woman, she believes all these comments about her appearence and forgets that she is worth more than just her looks.
At the point where Colin and Marilyn built up a close relationship, she relies on him in her worst moments, when anxiety and depression kick in. He makes her happy, laugh and see things differently, but just like her identity, she changes her mind about him many times. I think sometimes she uses Marilyn as protection, as something to hide behind. When she was on the trip with Colin, where they visited the castel, she has really been herself. On the way back you could see how her mood dropped and how presumably her self doubts came back to her because she knew that this was just a distraction from being Marilyn.
I think all in all she was just a woman that had to grow up and become independent far to early. You can tell that by the way she changes her mind and her mood throughout the movie and I do not think that she does all that because she needs the attention and likes to be the center of everything. I think it is the opposite, because all the people and all the expectations are far too much.
