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PAUL: Was there ever a feeling within yourself, at the time, that, based on the set-backs, health problems, failures and disappointments of Marilyn's last years, that she couldn't possibly live a long life? This could really have more to do with a focus on her declining health, both mentally and physically, than issues pertaining to career obstacles, and other things. JOHN: I never had the feeling that she wouldn’t keep living. John Huston saw it; didn’t even think she’d make it though "The Misfits". But Huston was an older guy — wise, seasoned, able to be objective, whereas self-absorbed actors like Marilyn and myself and Jimmy Dean et al were realistically unable to view anything other than what personal goodies tomorrow might bring. Tomorrow lacked limits — the boundaries of life beyond today were limitless. PAUL: There has been much idolatrous speculation among conservative nostalgia buffs, in regard to what your late friend, James Dean, might have gone on to accomplish had he lived. I have run into almost no corresponding speculation where Monroe is concerned; it's as if she lived too long, twelve years longer, in fact, than Dean. Do you feel, regarding Marilyn, what with all her myriad emotional problems, exacerbated by pills and alcohol, there exists no justified projection, by anyone, of had-she-lived sentimentality? In other words, she couldn't have survived much longer. I realize it's easy to say all this years after the fact, however it is curious how there is much breast-beating, sentimental projections about had-Dean-lived, but none really about Monroe. JOHN: Well, you know as well as I, Jimmy made three pictures and was dead before the last two were in release. Most of the world didn’t know who he was while he lived. The span of his career was truly that of a shooting star in the heavens, while Marilyn’s career and life were long-lived by comparison. Everyone in the world knew who Marilyn Monroe was at least ten years before her death. In all honesty, being a self-absorbed actor I only thought of tomorrow and working with Marilyn in a picture that would have made me a star. That was more important to me than anything else under the sun or moon. But shit happens, as they say, or else fates stepped in, made adjustments so I could stay on board but doing what I‘m now doing instead of shining from a silver screen. Disconnecting from the ‘jolly life’ of the actor was a painful experience, like withdrawing from being hooked; anxiety, confusion, a sense of loss and disappointment overwhelmed me — self punishment for self-denial grasped the form of obsessive sexuality. What actually was being offered to me was an exit — an emotional egress beneath the bright red neon spelling exit. The girl I had been living with so briefly (whom I later married), was pregnant, it seemed some oddball dictum from the gods — be the father to the child, the father I never shared a moment of closeness with in my life, the father Marilyn never had in any capacity; those thoughts took hold of my head. I was writing a script — writing a novel. Lawrence Hatterer, famed psychiatrist from New York’s Payne-Whitney Clinic (who I had been a subject for his book, THE ARTIST IN AMERICA, told me my fatherhood, marriage, and my writing would be my salvation. I craved salvation—I embraced it at the same time I sacked every actress, star, and non-actress I knew or encountered, finally to darker areas, dangerous places. I do not think hypothetically, but will venture had Marilyn lived longer, and had we made the movie together, I would have been a star and no doubt both of us would be dead.
JOHN: There is so much involved with the mode of the times — of the Brando influence and how it changed the tone of theater, writing, directing — acting. Marilyn was not taken seriously. Brando made fun of Marilyn, joked to Sam Gilman about her. Few actors taking themselves seriously gave artistic credit to Marilyn. The impact of the personality she created only manifested over years, and even now it is difficult to figure whether you are viewing her talents for what they were, or if you were brainwashed by the media and the popularity of Marilyn — the image of Marilyn that is such a profitable one world over. Which is which? Chicken or egg? Jimmy never talked about Marilyn because her pictures were not taken seriously. He drove out of Googie’s parking lot one night with Mamie Van Doren on back of his bike, went up somewhere by the Hollywood Bowl and said she looked like Marilyn Monroe with her hair blowing all around her head. But someone wanting to get romantic with Marilyn was not a serious venture, more a feather in the cap, which is exactly what Marilyn’s view was of her one-shot bedding with JFK. That is Hollywood — still is. Anything beyond an orgasm presents complications no one has time for. “Take it to your shrink.” Kazan, the god-figure of 50’s movies, had a ball with Marilyn but never used her in a picture. She wasn’t to be taken seriously. Poor Marilyn was never taken seriously as an artist during her time. Brando said, “She’s a joke like in the funnies…” Her fame and her beauty and how she was adored as the major star was taken seriously because she was top box office and no one could come close to the impact she had on fans and media. She was a sensation. Her fame was sensation. She wanted more — she wanted to be an artist, to be respected artistically in the business, but the cards had been dealt and she held another sort of hand. Introduction
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PAUL:
You've written elsewhere that Marilyn was much like James Dean
psychologically, emotionally, and with her overall perspective of life and
art.... and that "she knew it", that is, based on your knowledge
of both of these people, Monroe knew she was much like Dean. Did the two
of you, Marilyn and yourself, ever discuss anything having to do with
Dean, aside from the brief and intense exchange in the latter half of the
memoir? Did Dean ever offer comment or opinion of Marilyn?
