"You want me to talk about Marilyn? My God, I think there have been more books on Marilyn Monroe than on World War II, and there's a great similarity. It was a very complex thing working with her because she had tremendous problems with herself. She was on the edge of deep depression – whatever you want to call it – at all times. There was always a question, which you sweated out: "Is she going to show up? Is she going to show up on time? Is she going to live through the scene? Is she going to finish the picture?" And that is a very nerve-wracking thing if you've got eight million dollars in the enterprise. But when it's all done, it's well worth it. It's that old thing that I said, I don't know, four hundred years ago: "Look, if we wanted somebody to be on time and to know the lines just perfectly, I've got an old aunt in Vienna. She's going to be there at five in the morning and never miss a word. But who wants to look at her?""
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Atheists from the United StatesActresses from Los AngelesModels from the United StatesSingers from Los AngelesWomen singers
Original Language: English
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Sources
Billy Wilder, in an interview at AFI Conservatory (13 December 1970), in American Film; also in Billy Wilder: Interviews (2001), p. 113
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe
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