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» Articles » myOC: Mirror Image (May 11, 2001; by Barry Koltnow)

REVIEW: For Australian actress Poppy Montgomery, the chance to play Marilyn Monroe in a miniseries is a dream come true.

When Poppy Montgomery arrived in Los Angeles as an unknown, untrained 18-year-old actress with a thick Australian accent, she lived in a small apartment on a street that curls upward toward the famed Hollywood sign.

There is a small market on the street that would have been convenient, but it was way too pricey for the struggling actress. She barely made ends meet as it was and drove a 20-year-old car that had no windows.

But it is now seven years later, and she can afford to shop at the market. The actress stopped by the market this week after a morning interview and marveled at how far she has come in those seven years. She knows how far she's come because her face stares out from TV Guide covers that are prominently displayed at every checkout counter.

"It looks more like her than it does me," a stunned Montgomery said of the cover, which features the actress dressed as screen goddess Marilyn Monroe for her role in the four-hour CBS miniseries "Blonde," which starts Sunday at 9 p.m. and concludes Wednesday on KCBS/2.

"This is the first time I've seen the cover," she added. "I can't believe I'm on the cover of TV Guide as Marilyn Monroe. You have no idea how much she means to me. She's the reason I wanted to become an actress in the first place, and now she's given me the best role of my life. It's eerie."

What's even more eerie is that Montgomery has since moved from the Hollywood Hills, and now lives only one block from the Brentwood home in which Monroe died of an apparent drug overdose at age 36 on Aug. 5, 1962.

"I've been there awhile and didn't know how close I was to her home," Montgomery said. "I didn't find out until People magazine came to my house for a photo shoot. They asked if I would mind being photographed in front of her home. I told them absolutely not. I have no intention of exploiting Marilyn."

There are some who no doubt will say that the network miniseries, based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, is just one more bit of exploitation in a nearly four-decades-long flood of exploitation pieces on Monroe.

But Montgomery, whose Australian accent has vanished to the point that she recently lost a role because she was told she didn't sound Australian enough, maintained that she never would have accepted the role if she felt it was exploitative in any way.

"If it was based on anything but Joyce's book, I would not have done it," the fair-skinned, blond actress said over a light breakfast at a coffee shop less than a mile from her first L.A. apartment. "Her book brings a dignity to Marilyn's memory that no other book has ever done.

"The book makes Marilyn real. It humanizes her, and I want people of my generation to learn about her in this way. She's become a cartoon character to people my age. She's no different than Betty Boop. But they'll see a different Marilyn this time.

"Sure, some people are outraged that Joyce put words in Marilyn's mouth, but she did it with great care. She took the documented events in Marilyn's life and then took creative license emotionally.

"She does it so well, it almost seems like she's diving into Marilyn's psyche. I swear that Joyce Carol Oates was channeling Marilyn when she wrote this book."

FROM SYDNEY WITH LOVE

Young Poppy Montgomery was not a bad girl, but she was a rebellious girl, and she was expelled from five private schools before her 15th birthday.

"I wasn't doing horrible things, but I was outspoken and wild in the sense that I wouldn't conform," she said without apologies. "These were very strict private girls schools and I did what I wanted. I think I took after my parents, who were total rebels."

Of course, her parents were "total rebels" in London during the 1960s (her mother is British, her father Australian), and they now work at less rebellious jobs in Sydney, where her father owns a marriage reception business and her mother runs a market research firm.

At the age of 14 years, 9 months, Poppy dropped out of school.

"You can drop out at that age in Australia and I dropped out on that exact day," the actress recalled. "My parents were OK with it, although they said I had to get a job."

Her early work record was poor - even her father fired her as a waitress - and she moved out of the house at 16. A year later, she decided she wanted to be an actress and moved to the United States to apply to the Juilliard School of Drama in New York.

She admits that she wasn't qualified to apply to Juilliard and never made it to New York, opting for Los Angeles instead.

"I think acting was my ambition since birth, but I guess I never did anything to further that ambition," Montgomery said.

But she had three things going for her - she was smart, outspoken and fearless. She said she read a book called "How to Make It in Hollywood," and made note of a talent manager who had a hand in turning Julia Roberts into a star. She began pestering him on the phone but he said he didn't represent unknowns. Finally, perhaps to get her off his back, he referred her to an agent, who accepted her as a client.

The next two years were tough. Montgomery worked at a series of odd jobs to support herself while she went on acting auditions. She got a small role on the short-lived TV series "Relativity," made guest appearances on other shows and even won parts in several feature films ("Life," "Dead Man on Campus," "Devil in a Blue Dress"). Last year, she was one of the stars of the Barry Levinson series "The Beat."

She was about to accept a starring role on a new series when she got the call for "Blonde." She showed up, performed two scenes on tape with a casting director and left, convinced that she didn't get the part.

"I didn't meet one network executive, one producer or a director," she said. "I've had tiny roles where I met those people. Here I was being asked to carry an entire miniseries, and nobody wanted to meet me. I figured it was over."

It was far from over.

MARILYN LIVES

"Blonde" executive producer Robert Greenwald said he didn't need to meet Montgomery. He saw everything he needed on that tape.

"Either I was right in my assessment of her, or I was insane," the producer said. "I saw real courage on that tape. I saw a willingness to expose her heart and soul. It's easy for an actress to expose her body, but not many actresses are willing to expose what's inside them.

"From that first tape, I knew Poppy would go the distance. I knew she would not run away from the emotional truth of the character. She doesn't protect herself the way most actresses do, and that's exactly how Marilyn Monroe was. There was an openness about Marilyn, and I saw the same openness in Poppy."

Of course, it didn't hurt that Montgomery is almost a dead ringer for the young Norma Jean Baker.

"When they called to say I got the part, I had only a week to get ready before they started filming in Australia," Montgomery said. "That normally wouldn't be enough time to get familiar with a character but I guess I've been preparing for this role my whole life.

"I've read every biography ever written about Marilyn and I've seen every one of her movies dozens of times. I didn't have to research the character. I knew the character."

Since she completed the role, Montgomery said she has visited the late star's resting place in Westwood, which is now a major tourist attraction.

"I went with flowers and just sat there," she said with a hint of sadness. "I just wanted to pay my respects. And I wanted to thank her for this great role. It only seemed right.

"But, as much as I loved and admired her before, I think I'm in awe of her even more now that I've had a chance to play her in "Blonde."

"She was smart and she was a dreamer, and I think she was under-recognized as an actress. It was important to her that her talent be appreciated, and I don't think she ever got that in life. But her life was not all a tragedy. There was joy in her life as well, and that's what we tried to show in the miniseries.

"But there also were demons, and I think the demons just wore her down in the end."

A review of "Blonde" will appear in Show on Sunday.

If you would like to comment on this review, e-mail entertainment@myoc.net or join our discussion boards.

[source: myoc.com]

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