Wes Anderson’s favourite Marilyn Monroe movies: “She’s this most vulnerable kind of talent”

The films of Wes Anderson are from the qualities we’d associate with ‘old Hollywood’, with a strikingly modern visual style, eccentric characters and overwhelming perfectionism in the smallest of details. His recent feature, Asteroid City, is a fairly futuristic story, with the characters eventually coming face-to-face with an alien, voiced by none other than Hollywood’s greatest alien, Jeff Goldblum. But despite this distinctively contemporary style, Anderson listed Marilyn Monroe as one of the influences on Scarlett Johansson’s character in Asteroid City, discussing his favourite performances from the actor and old Hollywood icon.

Asteroid City follows a group of people living in an American desert town in 1955, all visiting the town for different reasons but becoming united as a strange series of events takes over. The film has a number of interweaving characters and storylines that create the wonderful tapestry of weirdness that Anderson is known for.

The character of Midge Campbell in Asteroid City was partly inspired by Monroe, with Anderson discussing his favourite roles from the actor, saying, “She’s this most vulnerable kind of talent where there’s something real happening in front of the camera. She’s a movie actress who goes back the other way. I don’t know that she ever played on the New York stage, but she went into the Actors Studio and tried to dig deep in that way.”

Marilyn Monroe was a complicated figure with a dazzling career that became haunted by her insidious experiences in the film industry and tragic death, changing the way we collectively look at celebrities and the lack of privacy given to women in the public eye. However, her incredible acting work should not be overshadowed by the way her story ended, with a magnetic on-screen presence that captivated audiences all around the world. Perhaps best known for Some Like It Hot, All About Eve, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monroe’s talent has defined an era of old Hollywood movies.

Johansson definitely mirrors this vulnerability in her performance. Anderson explores grief and community through his take on the play within a play, a character who lives in a permanent state of melancholia and uncertainty. The relevance of this perhaps makes it his most modern film.

When asked about the films of Monroe that he most enjoys, Anderson said, “I love her in Some Like It Hot and The Prince and the Showgirl. Billy Wilder made two movies with her, and he knew there was just no other way to get Marilyn Monroe than to go through the whole thing, to have Paula Strasberg telling her what to do behind his back.”

It’s somehow difficult to imagine Anderson enjoying films like these, with such an individualistic style that it’s hard to see the influence of other directors in his work, operating at this other level that you can’t really compare to anyone else. In many ways, the alien so wonderfully depicted by Goldblum in Asteroid City is in some way a reflection of Anderson himself – an alien working within the trappings of a strange system, communicating through his own unique cinematic language.

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