The actor who hated working with Marilyn Monroe: “You could tell there was tension”
At the height of her fame, Marilyn Monroe was one of the most recognisable celebrities in the world. While some stars seem born for the spotlight, Monroe struggled with the pressure of all the attention and was known for being difficult to work with. This became particularly true toward the latter part of her all-too-short life. She was gifted with that intangible magnetism in front of the camera, but in real life, she struggled with her intensifying stardom.
To cope with the pressure, she fell into substance abuse and developed a habit of bringing her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, with her to set. This laid the groundwork for a collision course between the director and Strasberg, as Monroe sought constant affirmation and guidance on her performances.
Many of Monroe’s colleagues praised her dedication to acting and her kindness to those around her, but there were plenty of co-stars who found working with her to be an uphill battle. One of them had even more reasons for finding the star difficult. Angela Allen, who appeared in Monroe’s final film, The Misfits, in 1961, revealed that the star was jealous and suspicious of her.
Speaking to Vulture in 2018, Allen said that Monroe was convinced the younger woman was having an affair with her husband, playwright and Misfits screenwriter Arthur Miller. Director John Huston informed her of Monroe’s suspicions about an affair, and Allen remembered retorting, “Am I? Well, am I enjoying it?”
On a more serious note, however, Allen found that Monroe was nearly impossible to work with. “You could tell there was tension,” she said. “Marilyn could never be wrong, Marilyn could never be guilty.” She acknowledged that Monroe was a magnetic screen presence and even said that Some Like It Hot, the Billy Wilder comedy in which Monroe starred, was one of her favourite films. But that didn’t compensate for the host of challenges that came with working with her.
One of the main issues was Strasberg, who Allen said was a domineering presence on set and completely in control of Monroe and her performance. But substance issues were also a problem.
“She was on the pills, uppers and downers,” Allen recalled. “I didn’t know this until John said to me one day when she was being particularly difficult and we’d had to stop shooting, that she’d been rushed to the [stomach] pump twice already. We said at the end of The Misfits if she lived another year we’ll all be surprised.” It was, in fact, a year and two months before she died of an overdose at 36.
The Misfits was Monroe’s last completed film, and it came during the star’s downward spiral. The previous year, she had been committed to a psychiatric clinic, hoping for some reprieve from her struggles with mental health. But she left as soon as she could, detailing later that the experience had been intensely traumatic and had felt more like a prison than a place for treatment and healing.
Although The Misfits was meant to be something of a comeback for her and proof that she could handle a dramatic role, the star was plagued with challenges off-screen. Her marriage with Miller was already on the rocks when shooting began, and their conflict only became worse during the production.
Allen’s experiences working with Monroe were not unusual compared to other co-stars, but it was perhaps the most troubled production of Monroe’s career. She spent the next year in and out of hospital for physical and mental health issues, and her brief attempt at a return to the big screen for Something’s Gotta Give came to a final, tragic halt when she died of an overdose before it could be completed.
