Wes Anderson Reveals His Favorite Marilyn Monroe Films: “She’s This Most Vulnerable Kind of Talent”
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Wes Anderson may be best known for his meticulously crafted worlds, pastel palettes, and eccentric characters, but the filmmaker’s influences often trace back to the glamour and fragility of old Hollywood. In a recent discussion of Asteroid City, Anderson revealed that one of the film’s central characters, Scarlett Johansson’s Midge Campbell, was partly inspired by none other than Marilyn Monroe.
Monroe’s Influence on Asteroid City
Set in a 1955 desert town beset by surreal events—including a close encounter with an alien voiced by Jeff Goldblum—Asteroid City features a web of intertwining characters, each grappling with grief, community, and the strangeness of existence. Johansson’s Midge, an actress living in a constant state of melancholia, was shaped by Anderson’s admiration for Monroe’s layered vulnerability.
“She’s this most vulnerable kind of talent where there’s something real happening in front of the camera,” Anderson said of Monroe. “She’s a movie actress who goes back the other way. I don’t know that she ever played on the New York stage, but she went into the Actors Studio and tried to dig deep in that way.”
Through Johansson’s performance, Anderson channels that same paradoxical mix of allure and fragility that defined Monroe’s screen presence, creating one of his most modern and emotionally resonant characters.
Anderson’s Favorite Monroe Performances
While Monroe’s legacy is often framed by her troubled personal life and tragic death, Anderson emphasized the importance of remembering her artistic achievements. “I love her in Some Like It Hot and The Prince and the Showgirl,” he noted, highlighting two of her most memorable performances.
He also pointed to the challenges Monroe faced on set, particularly during her collaborations with director Billy Wilder. “Billy Wilder made two movies with her, and he knew there was just no other way to get Marilyn Monroe than to go through the whole thing, to have Paula Strasberg telling her what to do behind his back.”
Wilder’s determination to harness Monroe’s talent, despite the difficulties, underscored what Anderson admires most: her ability to bring something raw and undeniable to the screen, a quality that transcended Hollywood artifice.
A Modern Echo of Old Hollywood
It may seem unusual to imagine Anderson—whose visual style and storytelling remain so distinct—as a devotee of Monroe’s films. Yet his cinematic fascination lies in the same contradictions she embodied: beauty layered with melancholy, spectacle infused with sincerity.
In Asteroid City, Johansson’s Midge reflects that duality, capturing the essence of Monroe’s vulnerability while navigating Anderson’s eccentric, alien-inhabited world. The homage serves as both a tribute to an old Hollywood icon and a bridge to contemporary explorations of grief, identity, and performance.
Much like Jeff Goldblum’s extraterrestrial in the film—a strange presence navigating human systems—Anderson himself operates as a cinematic outlier, speaking in a language entirely his own. But in his reverence for Marilyn Monroe, he reminds us that even the most idiosyncratic storytellers remain tethered to the legends who came before them.
Would you like me to frame this more as a film criticism piece (with analysis of Monroe’s influence on Anderson’s broader body of work), or keep it more entertainment-news style, focusing on the quote and Johansson’s role in Asteroid City?
