My Week with Marilyn (31 page)

No MM today. Calls to Plod yielded no clues, and at lunchtime we gave up hope. Finally AM called to say that MM wasn't well. A fever. Hmm. We had some shots we could do with SLO, Paul and Dicky. We also have prepared the corridor outside the purple room for shots of the valet and the other staff playing music in case MM doesn't come tomorrow.

When MM isn't on the set, SLO is a different man – tough, direct, clear-minded. Filming goes like clockwork, of course, because the other actors know him so well. But we all seem to feel that the centre of the film is missing, that what we are doing is peripheral. It's almost too easy. MM is so difficult to work with that even hardened technicians are driven crazy. But when she doesn't show up, we miss her! What a paradox. All of a sudden, filming is so routine that there is nothing to write about.

Despite our fears, MM did show up this morning, and at 8.30, but she didn't look well. I reported as much to SLO in his dressing room. A lot of people see each of them as soon as they arrive, but I'm the only one who sees them both.

‘What shall we do, Colin?' he said wearily. ‘What can we do?'

‘Can we switch to something simple? It's that or nothing, I fear.'

‘OK, send Jack (Cardiff) along. And Elaine (Continuity). We've got time to change things around.'

I explained the situation to Jack, and to David. Jack went to see MM for himself, but came out after a few minutes.

‘I think she's drugged,' he said to SLO. They looked at the shot list to find something easy which we could use in the only set which was already built and lit. Luckily there were two shots of MM in close-up, lying on the floor. Jack went off and spent an hour with MM's stand-in and the lighting crew. At this stage in the film, MM is supposed to have drunk too much vodka and passed out just as the Grand Duke is about to seduce her. So all she had to do this morning was to lie back and giggle ‘Oh, look at those lovely cherubs on the ceiling,' and ‘Good night, my darling. See you in the morning.'

Even in her woozy state, MM managed to do this quite quickly, so after lunch we filmed her and SLO on the sofa. By now she was so relaxed that she was actually very funny. Dicky W has to burst in and interrupt SLO and MM in a clinch. He has an alibi that MM no longer needs.

‘Your aunt has been in a serious motor accident, Miss Marina.'

‘Oh, go away you silly man,' giggled MM. ‘Serve her right. She shouldn't be out at this time of night. She's 93!' More giggles. Suddenly she really was
acting
. And for a moment we forgave her everything.

MM was very late this morning. Paula was tense and Milton was even tenser. Plod told me that MM and AM had a row in the night, and AM could not control MM at all. She was wandering around the house in a very distressed state. There had been a lot of phone calls, many of them transatlantic. Finally Milton had gone over with extra pills. MM had called for Whitey Snyder, but of course he is long gone. In the end one of the doctors in New York talked to her until she was calm enough to go to sleep. (Imagine what
that
cost!) AM had completely washed his hands of her, and Paula, usually her best friend and sort of surrogate mum, couldn't help on this occasion. Although Paula does want to control MM as an actress, she genuinely does not want to get between MM and AM.

We managed one long-shot of MM warning the Grand Duke that he'd better watch out because she is falling in love with him – just before she passes out.

SLO had to murmur ‘Oh my darling, my beloved' or some such nonsense just to keep her going, and this did seem to test
his
acting skills to the limit. MM was in another world – quite cheerful but ga-ga. Booze
and
drugs I suspect. Nothing seemed to get through to her. But she is meant to be drunk in that scene, so I expect it will look wonderful, as usual. At least the scene is ‘in the can'. When MM went back to her dressing room, it was clear she wouldn't be back on the set again, even though she didn't leave the studio.

We did reaction shots on SLO but our troubles weren't over. A piece of painted ceiling to go over SLO's head – referred to by MM yesterday – ‘Oh what pretty cherubs . . .' – was not ready and there was a great row. Teddy, Roger and even Carmen were all in a flap. I think it was partly the aftermath of the tension with MM. When she is so removed from the everyday world we live in, it is very hard to keep patience. The whole studio gets ‘on edge'. One thing is certain,
however. If you scream at her or even frown, she retreats further into her unreal world, and gets even harder to reach. SLO calls it the Ophelia Complex. We don't expect her in tomorrow.

AM went off to Paris today, which may explain why MM was in such bad shape yesterday. Rumour has it that he is going back to NYC after Paris and will be away for over 10 days. AM seems big-headed, insensitive and super-selfish. I never saw him look tenderly at MM, only with what looks like a sort of boasting self-satisfaction. What bad luck on MM. Why couldn't she have found what she really needs  — someone sympathetic to support her? She doesn't move around with those sort of people I suppose.

We've finished all the ‘cut-away' shots we can in the purple room. We will do the Grand Duke's dressing room next, and then we will move on to the hall and staircase.

In the meantime, we have scheduled a day on the lot for tomorrow. We have ordered all the ‘extras' available – about 500 – from the FAA. The costumes are already prepared, which means a lot of visits to the wardrobe department. The atmosphere up there is arctic, but, alas, there is nothing I can do. It is over. Poor little Wdg. She'll probably be married in a couple of years. Two kids and a family car. Wdg heaven!

Milton spent a long time with SLO and they decided to give MM a day off tomorrow. Then she can have a long weekend to rest in. She doesn't claim to be ill, but there is definitely more than one problem on her mind. Perhaps with AM gone, she'll get a chance to work quietly on the script with Paula. A lot of film stars first look at the day's lines while they are being made up – as MM does – but no other actor on this film does that. SLO expects them to know the whole script by heart before they arrive, like in a play.

500 extras are a hell of a handful. Just as David warned, they go to amazing lengths to avoid working. They also make desperate efforts to get paid double and the combination of both these pressures is bizarre. If they are in a medium shot with a principal actor, what they call ‘cameo', they get more. If they have any special responsibility – whistling, juggling, grinning, they get more. If they wear any item of their own clothing, they get more etc. They are each issued with a pay slip and it is up to the assistant directors to add on bonus items. We also have to sign each slip before they can get paid at all. Our ultimate threat is to sign them off early, or refuse to sign. This is very often threatened, all day long, but almost never done. Poor things, they are the absolute bottom of the acting profession, but some of them have a pathetic desire to be appreciated. Quite a few get steady work, especially if they are chosen to be a stand-in. Most of them have other professions to keep them going. The oldest are in their 70s – wise, benevolent, seen it all, and looked up to by the young ones. They are successful career extras! But a lot of the ladies look like ageing nightclub hostesses, and the men like street buskers. Quite depressing.

Today we had to get them all done up like a 1911 Coronation crowd. Then they had to be individually vetted to make sure they weren't wearing modern spectacles, watches and so on. Finally they were arranged in a long stand lining the roadside. The ‘roadside' was actually a track for the camera to run on with a wide column at either end. The camera rode down this on a ‘dolly', panning past the waving, cheering crowd, from column to column. Then we ‘cut', re-arranged the crowd, pulled the camera back to its original position, and did it again. By splicing the film, or mixing from shot to shot, as the camera went past a column, the crowd could appear to be as large and long as was needed. It will be projected behind the coach with SLO and MM in it on its way to the Abbey.

Needless to say, when we filled the stand, it was only half full.
David roared and stamped and we all went off like hounds, in search of the rest. The men's lavatories yielded 14, playing cards, with a bottle of whisky between them. Many threats and pleadings later they were on parade. The ladies' lavatories were the same. There was even a card game going on under the stand itself. The canteen, which was off limits as they will be given lunch boxes, had almost 30! At last we got about enough and we stopped counting. (They are very adept at confusing a count to protect their ‘mates'.)

David and I and another two second assistant directors yelled and applauded and waved and cheered to encourage them to do the same. Then we mixed them up and did it again. It was a lovely sunny day, which helped us a lot, but apparently that is a very
bad
thing for the film. It seems we have some real Coronation footage (Elizabeth II) which will be cut in with our footage to make it more impressive, and of course on QE's Coronation it never stopped raining, so the two footages might not match. How perverse.

We did the whole operation about 10 times, until everyone was fed up, not to say rebellious. We then took the opportunity to audition some of them for the ballroom scene, in a rehearsal room with a piano. We will need a mass of dancers for the Grand Ball, and we can get them from ballroom dancing clubs, but NOT until every member of the FAA who can put one foot in front of another to music has been given a chance. Otherwise we will have a strike. They all want to work, so many of them claimed to be experts, but in the end we took only eight couples, and they are not much cop. It was a sop to the union to take any at all, but hopefully they won't be noticed in a crowd of professionals.

Last night, after an excellent dinner, Tony told me of a rumour that MM was pregnant!! He is very alarmed. Will we soon have to cope with morning sickness, depression etc. as well as everything else? He wanted me to try to check it out with the household before he
told SLO and started a panic. So this morning I rang Plod and went over to Parkside for a quiet chat, on the pretext of talking to the staff. (They are restless, as usual.) Plod was very jolly. He would confirm nothing but just put a finger beside his nose with his lips sealed. I'm not quite sure if this means ‘yes' or ‘no', but I assume ‘yes'. Plod is the only one who never seems to be affected by the lunacy going on all round him. As he is now more loyal to MM than to me, and quite rightly so, I couldn't ask for details. Plod and I are close, but MM is his employer. She never speaks to him. He's like a stout walking-stick for her to lean on and he's very happy just to be that.

Paula appeared, looking as if she was trying to keep calm in a whirlwind. I sympathise with her. She has definitely bitten off more than she can chew. In the beginning, it was Milton who undertook to deliver MM's person, and Paula who undertook to deliver her performance. Now they are both facing failure. The whole film – and a lot of money – depends on their success but they both seem to have run out of ideas.

AM has left the country, and Hedda Rosten is no help at all. Plod says she encourages MM to drink champagne with her at all hours of the day. Naturally this makes MM feel ghastly and so she starts hitting the pills. There is no discipline whatsoever, and when Paula and Milton try to impose some, they become very unpopular and have to back off to survive. Hopeless.

I came back and told Tony there was no truth in the rumour about the pregnancy. Why give SLO another worry when there is nothing we can do about it? If the rumour does turn out to be true, we will all simply have to adapt as best we can, or the film will grind to a halt.

Once again, MM surprised us. Today she was inspired to make an enormous effort by the music. She has two music scenes in the film and they are being shot ‘back to back'. The first was her dance to the music of a barrel organ, which was coming in through the
open windows of the purple room. Richard Addinsell has written two pretty tunes for her, and this one is light and happy. MM is, as always, in that gorgeous white figure-hugging creation of Bumble's, and it is perfect for dancing.

The dances in this film are all ‘choreographed' by Billy Chappell.
⁶³
He is as camp as coffee but he is very sweet and cosy and gets on well with MM. All in all it was a delightful scene and MM did it exquisitely. The dance is interrupted by the young King, Jeremy Spenser, and it was easy to see that he was genuinely impressed by MM's performance. He is now almost the only person whom MM still likes, so it ended up a successful day.

One has to remember that even though MM is making a film with SLO, it is up to MM to make it something special – a super-star creation. SLO has made many films – some great and some mouldy. Only on stage, to a very limited audience, can he be seen as the great actor he is. And MM is carrying quite a lot of other burdens as well  – a husband who is unsupportive, and away; a manager who could be seen as exploiting her, and ‘best friends' who are sycophantic and weak. ‘Ruth amid the alien corn' really. MM rose to where she is now by being stronger, more talented and more ambitious than the competition. I dread to think how many blonde bombshells there are in Hollywood right now, trying to get where MM got by any means, fair or foul.

Whenever I meet anyone who has got right to the top, I always notice that they have something extra that ordinary people – including me alas – do not have. And that ‘little extra', whatever it is, does not mean that they have a happy or an easy life – quite the contrary. We have no right to demand that they share that little extra with us and then criticise them for being different or difficult or ‘dangerous to know'. MM has more than a little extra, and yet the technicians expect her to behave like a twopenny Rank starlet. If I was SLO I
would tell them off, and lay out the red carpet for MM every day. But that would mean telling himself off too, and admitting that while he is great in many ways, it is MM who is the MOVIE STAR.