Marilyn Monroe: Very, Very Serious

"She wanted very, very strongly to be a good actress."--Barbara Baxley

"She [Marilyn Monroe] was very serious at The Studio. People write and say now that Lee [Strasberg] favored and coddled her, but that is bullshit. I had my problems with Lee, but that is not true. What Lee did was he took her seriously, which she deserved. I was as dubious and snotty as others when I saw her come in. I didn't take her seriously. That's on me. I was wrong. She never drew attention to herself. She concentrated on everything and everyone, and she was very sweet to me. She wanted very, very strongly to be a good actress. To be a good person. Now, do I know anything about her personal life? Her tragedies or dreams? No, but who does? Marilyn came in as a serious student and she did her work. That's not a juicy story, so we peck at her corpse and take a piece of skin here, a piece of skin there, and put together an image, a portrait that satisfies our need to feel better about our own lives. Our own lives in which we are not beautiful and magical and fragile and very, very serious about becoming better."--Barbara Baxley on Marilyn Monroe/Interview with James Grissom/1989