Actress Scarlett Johansson has never made any secret of bing a Monroe fan, and has often drawn on her image – but she has no desire to play her onscreen, she tells The Independent:
‘”I never wanted to play Marilyn Monroe [Johansson was reportedly in the running to play the actress in last year’s ‘My Week with Marilyn’.] I don’t know. It’s just a job – I didn’t have the passion for that. I love Marilyn Monroe. She’s a very underrated actor but it just seemed exhausting in a way that I couldn’t wrap my head around.”‘
Interestingly, her thoughts on fame, and worries about being typecast as a sex symbol echo Marilyn’s…
‘I never wanted to be a sex symbol I wanted to be a character actor. Those are the actors I mostly admire. I think women that are curvy can be pigeonholed in that bombshell thing. It’s not like I actively look for sexy roles. It’s not a requirement that my character be pretty and delicate. I never think about my character being sexy, unless that’s written in.
It’s weird to be a recognisable face I’m not traumatised [by it] but I find it can bring out the worst in humanity sometimes. I’m constantly surprised by how rude people are. You’ll be having an intimate dinner with a friend and there’s somebody on the table behind with a cameraphone pointing at your face. I think, “I would never take a photo of someone without asking.”‘