Books, Ilenia Rossini talks about the ‘real’ Marilyn Monroe in ‘I’m Nobody’s Stupid Blonde’

It is no coincidence that the cover image of the volume represents the actress intent on reading ‘Ulysses’ by Joyce. A choice “to try to do her justice. It is an image that Eve Arnold, one of the most important Magnum photographers, took of her in the summer of 1955. It is a posed photo but, in that period, Marilyn Monroe was actually reading that book, in particular the last pages, those of Molly Bloom’s interior monologue”. A reading suggested by the fact that the diva also wanted to prepare for dramatic and not just comic roles. “It seems like a contradiction to see the quintessential dumb blonde reading Joyce’s ‘Ulysses.’ But that photo is real,” the author observes. A modern character, fresh and perhaps far ahead of the time in which she lived, the actress was also able to anticipate her times. An example? “In 1953 – replies Rossini – she published in her name with the collaboration of a journalist an article entitled ‘The wolves I met’. She ironically denounced all the harassment she had received in the previous years, when she was not yet a famous actress. She spoke of producers who offered her parts in exchange for sexual acts and of other men who attempted more serious approaches. She took advantage of the popularity she had obtained for a sort of #MeToo ante litteram”.

A woman loved, sought after, appreciated for her talents and beauty, Monroe was at the center of interest not only of the beautiful world of cinema but also of the FBI. Another element of his biography that Rossini highlights in the pages of his book. “In the summer of 1955 – explains the author – the FBI opened a file in her name. This was because she had requested a visa for the Soviet Union as part of a cultural exchange. She never went to the Soviet Union but the file grew from year to year until 1962 when she died. It grew because she became the partner and then the wife of Arthur Miller, one of the most famous American playwrights suspected of anti-American activities due to his closeness to some communist organizations. I imagine that he never knew that there was a file in his name, partly still classified.” File in which it was finally stated that Marilyn was “left-wing”. A woman who came “from the working class who had worked in a factory during the Second World War”, the actress was – in short – not just a wonderful star but an all-round protagonist, with a thousand facets. An actress who fought to be respected, a woman who never stopped questioning who was really behind the character that the world expected of her. Another Marilyn that Ilenia Rossini now returns to readers in a new guise, freeing her from stereotypes and clichés.