How Marilyn Monroe Nearly Drove Billy Wilder Out of Hollywood

Marilyn Monroe’s legacy as one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons is cemented in film history—from the subway-grate scene in The Seven Year Itch to her sparkling turn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But behind the image of the ultimate “blonde bombshell” lay a complicated working life, often strained by industry politics, relentless media scrutiny, and personal struggles. Those challenges didn’t just affect her—they nearly drove one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors to quit the business entirely.

A Partnership on Paper, a Clash in Practice

Billy Wilder, the Austrian-born filmmaker behind Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, and Double Indemnity, was a master of both razor-sharp wit and biting social commentary. In the mid-to-late 1950s, Wilder directed Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959)—two films now regarded as American classics.

Yet Wilder’s recollection of working with Monroe was far from rosy. In later interviews, he confessed:

“I worked on two pictures with her and wanted to give up the profession. My wife and three doctors begged me to never work with her again. She was a most difficult woman. It was not easy for her to get in front of a camera… She couldn’t remember one word. Not one! She misreads a line, then breaks down and starts crying. I would say, ‘That’s all right. Let’s try it again.’ But, because she’d been crying, it would take 45 minutes to an hour to put new make-up on her.”

Wilder attributed her on-set difficulties to “dementia praecox or whatever,” a phrase reflecting the limited understanding—and, in Hollywood, the limited compassion—toward mental health at the time.

Monroe’s Struggles Behind the Scenes

While Wilder’s frustration was real, Monroe’s behaviour didn’t occur in a vacuum. By the late 1950s, she was one of the most photographed women in the world, relentlessly pursued by paparazzi and hounded by gossip columns. Studio executives expected her to remain in the “dumb blonde” archetype that had made her famous, often dismissing her ambitions for more serious, substantive roles.

Determined to take control of her career, Monroe founded her own production company in 1954—an audacious move for a woman in that era. But the push for autonomy came at a cost: she clashed with powerful studio heads, faced constant media judgment, and worked under the pressure of proving herself in an industry unwilling to see her as more than a sex symbol.

On top of that, Monroe’s personal life was marred by health issues, emotional instability, and substance use, all of which could have impacted her focus and reliability on set.

Art vs. Reality

Ironically, despite the behind-the-scenes tensions, Wilder’s collaborations with Monroe produced some of the most beloved moments in Hollywood comedy. Some Like It Hot remains one of the greatest American films of all time, with Monroe’s performance as Sugar Kane both glamorous and tender.

In retrospect, it’s tempting to wonder whether Wilder’s later feelings toward Monroe evolved as the full extent of her struggles became more widely understood after her death in 1962. His comments reflect a director grappling with an immensely talented but troubled star—someone whose off-camera challenges were inseparable from the performances that made her immortal.

A Legacy of Complexity

Marilyn Monroe’s working relationship with Billy Wilder captures the contradictions at the heart of her career: adored yet underestimated, professional yet plagued by personal battles, cherished on screen yet criticized behind it. Wilder may have wanted to “give up” at the time, but his films with Monroe are now cornerstones of Hollywood’s Golden Age—proof that even the most difficult collaborations can yield timeless art.

If you’d like, I can also write a follow-up piece examining Monroe’s working relationships with other major directors and how those dynamics shaped her career trajectory. That would place Wilder’s experience in a broader industry context.