This latest episode is the first to be filmed since the series began airing, and features Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) in Marilyn mode:
‘Movie star/Bombshell star Rebecca Duvall grappled with mounting performance anxiety, and Derek slithered into her dressing room to urge her to use her insecurities to better understand Marilyn, and to revel in her own star power, too. “It’s your escape from the terror,” he insisted. (Srsly?) Rebecca then donned (not entirely convincing) Marilyn drag for a performance of “Happy Birthday, Mr. Director” – ”I wonder if she got Karen to coach her,” snarled Ivy Lynn, hilariously — and before you knew it, Derek was all “Marilyn glowed in the light. She was luminous like you.” And Rebecca was all looking for a compliment that went beyond Derek thinking she was pretty. And then Derek used his condescension – ”You, my darling, are a lovely little actress.” — as an aphrodisiac. Next thing you know the director and his leading lady were going at it in the dressing room, with Rebecca’s creepy manager, super creepy Ellis, and somewhat creepy Ivy standing outside, eavesdropping creepily. Rebecca and Derek doing the nasty brings a whole new meaning to “Let Me Be Your Star,” I guess.’ – TVLine
‘“Smash’s” big gamble, starting out, was whether or not anyone would care enough about Marilyn to care at all about “Bombshell.” The musical-within-a-musical could have been about anything — the Tudor dynasty, contemporary politics, Joni Mitchell, the roaring ’20s, you name it — but they went with an iconoclastic character partly because she’s familiar to a mass audience and partly because she is glamorous and fun and beautiful, qualities the producers wanted to stamp onto their own young stars. The Marilyn story comes with drama already baked in; the high-highs and the low-lows, the rapture and the fame and the suicide. But as the show proves, there are complications that go with Marilyn, and hers is not a story that belongs in just anyone’s hands.’ – Rachel Syme, Los Angeles Times