My Week with Marilyn (39 page)

I must get some sleep. Stars can afford nervous breakdowns, senior crew are allowed to have a headache, 3rd Ast Dirs must stay in rude health. No energy, no job.

Guy Fawkes night, and no prizes for guessing where we would like to plant a bomb. But she didn't turn up at all this morning, so we had a relatively peaceful day.

Milton is not quite so quick to go to SLO's dressing room after ‘rushes' these days, nor quite so welcome, and Tony heads off for London. This means that I can usually stay for a chat and a drink. SLO likes to unwind with big whiskies and Olivier cigarettes for half an hour before going home to Vivien. Tonight the poor man was already worrying about what he will do next. He has to continue working on the film — editing, adding music, special effects etc. until after Christmas – but then he wants to find a new challenge. He is obsessed with the fact that he will be 50 next year, and sees this as a big turning point. Famous as he is, he is not interested in the successes of the past. He feels he has a far greater contribution still to make, and is not prepared to rest on his laurels. All the trappings of being a star he sees as hindrances – Notley, the knighthood, even, to some extent, Vivien. It is wonderful to be so ambitious – at 50! He very kindly said that he hopes I will stay with him, whatever he does. Of course he cannot guarantee anything. He may accept a job working for somebody else. That would probably be a relief to start with, although he is too experienced to be told what to do except by a very few, brilliant directors.

‘But you are part of the family now, Colin,' he said, and that is what I wanted to hear more than anything else. Loyalty is what he demands and then he is fiercely loyal back. He certainly won't go straight into another film — he couldn't stand it – so that means the
theatre. But which play? And for whom?
⁹²
Right now he has to get this film finished somehow. It's much too late for him to find a new approach – to MM or to anyone else in her group. He does realise that Milton is trying his best, but he has lost some of his respect for him. He knows that AM is only too keen to get MM out of the house in the mornings, and for this reason alone is an ally. He can see that everyone else in the film is rooting for him, and giving all the help they can. But still: ‘Frankly Colin, I've had it' is his constant refrain. ‘Vivien is being very difficult. She is clearly fed up with the whole thing. She never liked the idea – hated it in fact. She was jealous, I suppose, although she'd never admit that.' Now she is bored. Doesn't want to listen to SLO's moans any more. She always hated early nights. She won't respect film discipline. She's started the old round of house guests and dinner parties and late nights at Notley. ‘I don't like that, Colin. In fact I hate it.'

(I haven't bothered to put in all the swear words, but there were plenty.) The truth is that, once again, Vivien doesn't let him get enough sleep. Fancy being tormented by both these women at once  — Vivien Leigh and Marilyn Monroe. And I get the impression that he isn't having sex with either!

We are still in Elsie's dressing room at the theatre. The ‘girls', Elsie's companions, with minor roles to play, are what keep us all going. They are completely unspoilt, and are thrilled to be working with MM, which makes them a joy. MM is so famous that any actress could be forgiven for thinking that a little of that fame must rub off. Vera Day plays, and is, a cheeky Cockney. Her husband came to collect her this evening and we met in the long corridor. I soon
found out why she bothered to introduce him to me. ‘I wonder if you could do me a favour Colin,' he said immediately. I murmured that I'd be delighted to try. ‘Right then. Go to the editing room and get a few frames of film with Vera in the picture with Marilyn. I'll see you all right,' he added, and pressed a 2 shilling piece into my hand. ‘There's another of those for you when you get the film.' That was more naive than I thought.

‘No, no, that's frightfully kind of you,' I said, ‘but I can't take it. I'll certainly try to find the film, but Sir Laurence would never allow me to accept a reward. Thank you so much for such a generous offer.' He looks like an Old Kent Road bruiser, and he wasn't too pleased to have his ‘generous' tip returned. I wonder what I would have done if he'd offered me a ‘fiver'? Actually it won't be too easy to do what he asks. I'll have to ask the ast editor for a trim. He will only let me have something shot before the clapper or after the cut and I don't think Vera is in shot with MM very often, except in the middle of a scene.

A new film has started shooting at Pinewood with Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn. It is a comedy called
The Iron Petticoat
. Everyone was dying to meet Hope and dreaded working with Hepburn. Needless to say Hepburn is
divine
and BH is arrogant and unpleasant.

Hepburn says hello to everyone while Hope remains totally aloof. I met Hepburn today when she came to visit SLO. She is as gorgeous as Dame Sybil, only much younger, all red hair, and freckles, and a huge smile which she turned on me as often as on SLO. SLO did have a point when he said later: ‘Why couldn't MM have been like that? What a lot of fun we could have had, making this film.'
⁹³

‘Yes, but MM's had twice the publicity and half the training as an actress. That would derange anyone.'

‘No training as an actress at all,' said SLO gloomily. And yet he is forgetting what Dame Sybil said about who the public will be looking at when the film comes out.

My main goal now is to keep SLO cheerful. But I have a dilemma. Do I stick to SLO when all this is over, and hope that he will take me to the theatre with him? Or do I stick to David, and the film gang, and try to get a job as a 2nd Ast Dir with them on their next movie? I haven't talked it over with David yet and that is going to be hard to do without seeming to presume that he would help me.

David can be very touchy and he has always been ambivalent about having a 3rd Ast Dir with ‘connections'. I'd really have to dump those ‘connections' completely to stay with him. The film world is ‘
sauve qui peut
'. It is dangerous to presume too much, even though David and Mr P are two people I really feel I can trust to help.

We are now back-stage at the Gaiety Theatre. The Grand Duke is making his visit to the cast in the interval, and they will all be lined up to be introduced. In the ‘rushes' of yesterday's footage, MM looked really embarrassing, as if she came from a different production altogether – the mad woman of Chaillot.
⁹⁴
Her hair was down and her eyes were wild. Her line ‘Oh gosh! I don't have a thing to wear' came out like the cry of a drowning woman – and, come to think about it, that's really what it was!

Today she was more cheerful. She was among a whole group of actors and actresses who treated her pretty much as one of them – a bunch of players thrown together in minor roles in a musical comedy. As they all jostled round, pushing and chattering, she must have felt
like she did in the Actors Studio, but tonight MM complained to Paula that she was feeling ill. Paula can no longer speak to anyone English but me, so I act as interpreter. I rushed the news to David first this time, so he could warn Jack and the crew. An early warning like this definitely means that she will not be in tomorrow. Then I went to SLO's dressing room to break it to him gently over a whisky.

‘Quick. Warn the crew before they go home.'

‘Done.'

‘Well try to find Milton, and see if she'll see a doctor. She might be off for five days.'

‘Milton's already gone to Parkside to see what he can arrange.'

‘Oh. Good,' SLO said doubtfully. He likes me to think for him, but I suppose sometimes it makes him feel old.

‘I'm afraid MM is a very healthy young woman,' I said. ‘She's just in bad condition. No regular meals, sleep or exercise. Pills one day, champagne the next. No wonder she feels ill but I don't think she
is
ill.'

SLO growled. ‘Discipline is the most important thing for an actor. An actor can be permanently drunk, like Bob Newton or Charles Laughton, so long as they have discipline. Without it any actor just falls apart.'

‘MM is too spoiled now,' I said. As long as everyone keeps telling her she is a genius and can do no wrong, she won't understand why she should go to sleep, or eat, or turn up at the same time as normal people. It's no good saying ‘Marilyn, you are a normal person underneath.' She is completely convinced that her extraordinary fame exempts her completely. What no one dares to tell her is that her fame springs mainly – but not entirely – from her appearance.

‘You know, I actually fancied her when I first met her,' said SLO. ‘She's a freak of nature, not a genius. A beautiful freak.'

Since we knew MM wasn't coming in, we were all prepared. Everyone is sympathetic to SLO, and tries to help if they can. He looks pretty gloomy all the time, and his performance gets less and less appealing. This is a special pity because what we are shooting now is his first appearance in the film, apart from his arrival in the coach.

MM's first appearance was the mad scene with the powder puff, so they are a pretty sorry pair. (I wonder if that is why she was so nervous then. I hadn't thought of that – but maybe, just maybe, she had.)

Tony B is not as friendly to me these days. That's sad, after all the happy times we had together at Runnymede. I hope it doesn't reflect something that SLO has said to him. Actually I think it is because he is slightly jealous. He is so very possessive of ‘Laurence', as he calls him sternly. But he is still a lovely man, and mellows quite quickly when I pretend I haven't noticed him being cool. I don't know if he also expects to move on with SLO. Perhaps SLO has told Vivien  — just to please her – that he is taking me with him into the theatre. Vivien's world is built on ‘Chums' or – in my case, as with Gilman  — adoring slaves. Tony is a SLO man, not a Vivien man. He likes to go off with SLO while Anne stays with Vivien. Now the film is ending, Vivien's influence is growing stronger every day. We will know in 10 days' time.

This morning I just couldn't resist doing a practical joke on Milton and David. The phone rang when we were all having drinks at lunchtime. I was sitting beside it so I picked it up.

‘Does Mr Greene need a car over the weekend?' asked a voice. ‘Now, listen here Marilyn,' I said crisply. ‘I've had enough of your bad behaviour. You're late, you're rude and you don't learn your lines . . .'

By this time Milton and David M had both reached the phone, arms and legs flailing wildly.

‘Marilyn, Marilyn, we love you!' they screamed at the startled hire car company. ‘Don't listen to him. It was Colin. He's gone crazy. We love you!' I was laughing so much that they began to smell a rat. ‘Marilyn? Marilyn?'

‘Is that the Greene residence?' said the chauffeur at the end of the line.

I don't know if they will forgive me. I suppose it was cruel of me after so much hospitality. They pretend to see the funny side, but Milton was badly shaken. Even David M ‘lost his cool' for a minute or two. At dinner tonight Milton looked at me strangely.

‘I didn't know you Brits had it in you,' he said, whatever that means.

Seven more days, and then we will all have to go back to the real world. For 15 weeks we have been hermetically sealed in a huge concrete box, like animals in a zoo. We are almost completely cut off from life outside. We arrive in the dark before anyone else is awake and leave in the dark after they are back home again. The average is 13 hours a day. Somehow we have all managed to get along, except, I suppose, for poor MM (and the little Wdg). No one can approach MM now. If you address her directly, you might as well talk in Swahili. She is, no doubt, more desperate to get out than we are. That, however, was not ‘motivation' enough to get her to the studio today. Plod rang early – ‘Not a chance.' SLO was in a towering rage. The whole cast of
The Coconut Girl
had been called, and there was only one scene we could shoot with them. This consisted of Jean Kent – the leading lady – lining up everyone back-stage ready for the Grand Duke's arrival. As she is finishing she has to ask ‘Now. Who's missing?'

‘Elsie Marina,' calls Daphne.

‘Oh, can't that girl
ever
make an entrance on time?' Miss Springfield replies, crossly. The irony was lost on nobody.

After lunch we did the part of the Grand Duke's progress down the line where he meets Vera Day. Up until now the film has only had one female in it – namely MM, if you don't count old Dame S. I think SLO sometimes forgets what real girls are like. Little Vera Day gave off more energy than SLO expected. He seemed taken aback and almost forgot his lines for a moment – unheard of for SLO. Of course he is very tense, and perhaps he is so brainwashed by MM and Vivien that he expects all women to be difficult. Vera is simple, direct, and sexy. She radiates a different sort of life force to MM. It is lower voltage – and not so far reaching – but it is strong enough to give you a jolt. SLO is normally so wooden, Dicky so dry and Jeremy so discreet that it is little wonder that MM jumps out of the screen every night in ‘rushes'. She really has had no competition at all. No one could deny MM's natural talents, and I'm not suggesting that Vera Day could carry the movie, but even so, SLO got a surprise. It was like a man who works in a power station getting an electric shock from his car battery.

I have certainly missed female company over the last 15 weeks. I suppose it's not until you get to be a producer that you sleep with the starlets. I hope there are more opportunities in the theatre. If not, I have a dangerous tendency to fall in love with other people's wives.