» PoppyMontgomery.net » Your #1 Poppy Montgomery resource!

» Articles » Interviews » Entertainment Tonight: Hello, Norma Jeane (May 8, 2001)

Australian-born POPPY MONTGOMERY stars in the four-hour CBS fictional miniseries, "Blonde," based on the best-selling novel by JOYCE CAROL OATES about the captivating and enigmatic MARILYN MONROE.

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: Poppy, I think playing Marilyn would be one of those daunting-type roles for an actress. Did you have any doubts about doing it?

POPPY MONTGOMERY: I had so many doubts about doing it. I was terrified, especially being Australian playing an American, and we were shooting in Australia. My main concern was that it had been done a lot before this. There's been a lot of Marilyn done in every which way, and I didn't want to do the standard thing, which was the caricature of Marilyn Monroe. And "Blonde," thanks to Joyce Carol Oates and JOYCE ELIASON, was such a phenomenal script that that made me feel safe with it. But absolutely, it was very daunting, until we started shooting. And then it just sort of happened, and the fears left.

ET: What's the key to playing her, then?

POPPY: For me, it was to try and put aside the sort of cartoon figure that she's become, this myth, and understand the person. It was important for me to try to see the similarities in my life and to humanize her because she is such an icon and such a mythical sort of figure. In reality, she was an actress and a girl who wanted to succeed and, when she succeeded, then wanted to be respected for what she did. I tried to look at those aspects.

ET: How did playing Marilyn change your life? Also, what did you think of Marilyn before you stepped into her shoes, and what do you think of her now?

POPPY: Well, it's interesting because I've been sort of -- I don't want to say obsessed -- but obsessed with Marilyn since I was a child. And I've read all of her biographies. I had done all of my research. I was always in awe of her. I am more so now. Playing Marilyn has affected my life ... I'm still not sure how in a lot of ways. I mean, as an actress, it made me realize that I think we all share the same kind of desires and hopes. What I learned about her is that she wasn't just this victim of the world. I think that she was very ambitious. I think that she was very bright and smart and that that's been neglected -- and Joyce Carol Oates really explores that in "Blonde."

ET: Why were you in awe as a child, and why are you in awe now?

POPPY: I don't know why as a child. You know, you just sort of fixate on something as a child, or it strikes you. I don't remember why. I thought she was so beautiful, and I loved all of her films. Now, I look at her life and I look at where she came from and where she got to, and I think that that required huge strength, ambition and discipline. She always wanted to learn and better herself, and that's very impressive to me -- I love that about her.

ET: Did you have to get rid of your Australian accent to do it, or do you have an Australian accent?

POPPY: I can't do the Australian accent anymore. I luckily had gotten rid of that previously and now I can't get it back. I went for an audition -- I think I've told this story before -- but I went for an audition to play an Australian girl. I thought I was a shoe-in. The feedback to my manager was it was the worst Australian accent they ever heard. So I think I've kind of beaten it out of my system.

ET: How did you get the job in "Blonde"?

POPPY: I auditioned and was put on tape. And thanks to ROBERT GREENWALD and CBS, it happened very quickly. It was one audition, then I was flying to Australia, of all places, to shoot it.

ET: You mentioned that you didn't feel Marilyn was a victim in any way. But do you see her as maybe a Dr. Frankenstein, who created a monster that basically took her over?

POPPY: I think in some ways that's the case, but I think that it wasn't something that she wanted to necessarily give up either. At one point in her life she went to New York to do theater and go to the Actors Studio, but she still came back to it. And she made very conscious choices about maintaining her celebrity.

ET: Did you ever explore how Marilyn would have behaved had she found her real father ... Like, for example, that scene with JOE DiMAGGIO when you thought you were going to meet your dad.

POPPY: Right, yeah. I explored it to the extent of -- how do I put this -- living in that fantasy of could it be this person, could it be that person, and I put myself in that position. There's a scene in "Blonde" where I meet CLARK GABLE and there is the dream that that's really my father -- because it could have been any number of famous actors, and so it left a lot of room for fantasy, "Maybe that's my father."

ET: In your preparation, did you explore any of the aspects of mental illness?

POPPY: Well, I didn't have to because my uncle is a paranoid schizophrenic. I grew up surrounded by someone very similar to GLADYS (Marilyn's mother). Although I was protected from it by my parents, I understand it and I've seen it firsthand. It was astonishing to see PATRICIA (RICHARDSON) play it so brilliantly because I have experienced it.

ET: I'm confused by the combination of doing research and trying to get close to the facts of these characters lives, and yet the movie is based on a novel. Why didn't you just go ahead and make it up?

POPPY: Because what Joyce Carol Oates has done is taken the actual facts and then elaborated on them. So the facts are the same -- the facts of Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean's life. And then she's taken those and sort of created scenes or used her imagination of what she thinks may have happened within that set of facts. "Blonde" became my bible. But "Blonde" actually corresponds with much of the printed material -- biographies on Marilyn. So it was actually like a blueprint really, because before the scene, I could read through and Joyce Carol Oates had all the thoughts.

ET: Could you talk a little bit about recreating the famous scenes from film? I'm sure some people would say in that number she didn't have her hand on her hip, she had it in the air. How many times did you have to watch them? How many times did you practice?

POPPY: We deliberately did not try to imitate move for move those scenes because it is a novel. We didn't try to make it identical. They had a choreographer come in and do "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," which was uniquely his. The outfit and everything was the same, but we didn't try to match it identically, which I'm glad about because she had her own unique style and her own way of moving. I think what we, JOYCE CHOPRA, the director, and I were trying to do was capture the essence of Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jean. However, I did watch it about 5,000 times. And I can't dance to save my life. I'm the worst dancer -- I won't even dance at a disco. So, I had like five dance rehearsals, five two-hour sessions.

ET: How did you react when you first saw yourself as Marilyn?

POPPY: With horror, I felt like a drag queen. I was like "Oh, my God, this is awful," but I had such faith in my hair and makeup artist. He won the Oscar for 'Braveheart,' and he's brilliant with wigs and he's so talented. He said, "You just have to trust me." PAUL PATTISON, his name is. I aged from 16 to 36. I should say, by my own choice, I have not yet seen the film because I'm not ready to. I'm not distanced enough from it yet. I think it's going to be somewhat startling to see myself. The amount of body makeup that went into the white skin and covering all of my freckles, it was like you put it on a corpse. Marilyn actually had freckles, which was interesting, and they would white out her skin.

ET: Speaking of physical appearance, was there ever any concern or consideration because Marilyn was very hourglass shaped?

POPPY: I was when I did the film. Because I have been traveling a lot, I had dropped about 14 pounds just before I shot "Blonde." So I stopped working out, doing yoga, because I didn't want to be cut and defined, you know. And I ate whatever I wanted for two months. I was like, "Bring it on" -- bagels, cream cheese, muffins. It was great. And I actually prefer myself at that weight. So I was much more hourglass.

[source: etonline.com]

Ť back