Robert Mitchum Talks About Marilyn Monroe

Mitchum discusses Monroe

When I first met Marilyn she was Norma Jean Baker, Norma Jean Dougherty as a matter of fact at that time. And I was working at Lockheed. Jim Dougherty was my partner and he had a picture of his bride. And she was very shy, very pleasant, very sweet. But uh, she was uh, not too comfortable around people because I suppose her background hadn't prepared her for sort of uh, easy sociality. She was convinced that she was not terribly pretty or sexy. Really, you know. And as a matter of fact she did not, she didn't have an aura of sexiness about her. The drama coach Natasha Lytess came into her life because I'm sure that Marilyn thought there was some magic in Natasha. She felt she needed someone to support her, to tell her what she was doing right when she did do something right. She felt that this whole lark of being a sex goddess or glamor queen was just that. She would uh, play it if that's what they wanted and as a matter of fact she "burlesqued" it really because she thought the whole thing was very, very funny.

In River of No Return Marilyn was cast opposite an old friend, Robert Mitchum.

At that time, I didn't think she knew too many people who were very friendly to her. Growing up in an atmosphere of agents, directors, and journalists, she seemed uh like a lost child. The whole thing to her, I mean her position in this atmosphere was uh like Alice in Wonderland. The whole thing was through the looking glass and she could not believe that anyone was very serious about her.

She was a very special girl and she had an enormous feeling for, well just for people. When we came back from Canada, and they were doing close-up work of the stuff we do on the raft in the white water. And there was a fellow in the tank blasting us with a high-pressure fire hose. And she suddenly looked over at him and started almost whimpering and I said, "What is it?" She said, "Look at him,", she said, "He's freezing". She said, "He's turning blue and I said, "Good luck to him. He keeps hitting me with that 175 pound hose." And she made them take him out. She just stopped and said, "I can't. That man is suffering". And she stopped and she wouldn't work until they replaced him with somebody who was warmer.




She really felt she didn't have the inner qualifications to fulfill the image of the sex goddess. As a comedienne I think she was very comfortable. But she uh, she thought that the whole thing was a lie because it was not her. And uh, so she tried to wrap it up and was going to New York and went to the Actor's Studio and uh, she wanted to find some firm ground.

I should think that if Marilyn would be aware of the, the sort of legendary quality that she herself inspired I should think that no one would be more surprised than she because she never really felt worthy. She would feel that after her years of search that she had been finally and truly adopted.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Robert
• Mitchum
• Marilyn
• Monroe
• River
• of
• No
• Return

[YourFaceWillDie468]

Anyone know when this was recorded?

[babyidontcare23]

@YourFaceWillDie468 Hi there, sorry I am not sure. The original airdate for the program was 1987. I found out today and was tickled pink that Roger Ebert posted this video to his blog.

[marchairodus]

Could you translate it in french please! i can just understand some pieces of what Mr Mitchum says but not all over('cause of his american accent i think!)

[babyidontcare23]

@marchairodus Hi! My French is limited. I will try and use an online translator and post the results when I have time. Hopefully that will help you.

[babyidontcare23]

@marchairodus  Hi! I think this is better...I added the transcript in English to the description and you can use that to help you translate it into French.

[kaliastro]

old potheads are the best potheads

[marchairodus]

@babyidontcare23 Thank you very much: so now i can easily read and translate!

[SUZI1990ful]

Im a big fan of Marilyn, so thanks...I had no idea that Micthum knew her when she was Norma Jean.