Sneak preview
Exclusive interviews with Billy Wilder, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and others
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Jack Lemmon: They were shooting Porgy and Bess next door and Tony and I, before the picture, started doing our make-up tests every day for a week and then finally getting it the way we liked it. Then Tony said, 'I got an idea, come with me,' and he marches me down to the commissary and into the ladies room and we just sat in the outer section of the ladies room there in front of the mirror putting on lipstick and going yap, yap, yap, just yapping away and the girls would come out and say, 'Hi girls, what are you on?' And we'd say, 'We're doing a period piece up the street with Billy Wilder,' and they said, 'Oh, good.' Nobody batted an eyeball or caught on so we went into Billy's office and told him and he said, 'Don't touch anything' and that's it, no camera tests, nothing, that's it. And that's how we settled on the makeup. I didn't realize I was doing my mother until she came to visit us on the set and we did a picture together and we looked like twins.
***
Tony Curtis: When a woman worked on a movie it wasn't the same as a guy, although we learned it because we had hair and makeup to dress like women, so if they needed two hours with us, all of a sudden I began to understand what a woman had to go through, you know, to come in a six to be ready at nine and meanwhile the script is being written and all the pieces are being put together.
Marilyn
Dan Auiler: There was one scene in particular that Mr. Wilder remembered having the hardest time with, which was the bourbon scene in the hotel room.
Jack Lemmon: Oh yeah, Tony and I started making bets on it and I think that I won. I think that Tony said it was gonna go to seventy takes and I said, 'No, it'll be sixty something.' The numbers were up there like that. And all she had to say was, 'Where's the bourbon?' Anyway she would stop-Billy wouldn't stop her-she'd say, 'Where's the... sorry,' and she'd shake her hands. I told Billy, 'I think we've got a million feet of Marilyn going like this: [silence, frozen]'. I didn't know if he could use it, but there was a lot of it. She would go out the door, close it, and Billy would say roll 'em and back she'd be again, 'Where's the... sorry.' This went on and on and on. Billy started giving her direction between takes that was incredible, I mean he dreamed up every conceivable thing in the world to give her to get those words out and play 'em in every and any conceivable legitimate way-none of it worked.
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Jack Lemmon: They were shooting Porgy and Bess next door and Tony and I, before the picture, started doing our make-up tests every day for a week and then finally getting it the way we liked it. Then Tony said, 'I got an idea, come with me,' and he marches me down to the commissary and into the ladies room and we just sat in the outer section of the ladies room there in front of the mirror putting on lipstick and going yap, yap, yap, just yapping away and the girls would come out and say, 'Hi girls, what are you on?' And we'd say, 'We're doing a period piece up the street with Billy Wilder,' and they said, 'Oh, good.' Nobody batted an eyeball or caught on so we went into Billy's office and told him and he said, 'Don't touch anything' and that's it, no camera tests, nothing, that's it. And that's how we settled on the makeup. I didn't realize I was doing my mother until she came to visit us on the set and we did a picture together and we looked like twins.
***
Tony Curtis: When a woman worked on a movie it wasn't the same as a guy, although we learned it because we had hair and makeup to dress like women, so if they needed two hours with us, all of a sudden I began to understand what a woman had to go through, you know, to come in a six to be ready at nine and meanwhile the script is being written and all the pieces are being put together.
Marilyn
Dan Auiler: There was one scene in particular that Mr. Wilder remembered having the hardest time with, which was the bourbon scene in the hotel room.
Jack Lemmon: Oh yeah, Tony and I started making bets on it and I think that I won. I think that Tony said it was gonna go to seventy takes and I said, 'No, it'll be sixty something.' The numbers were up there like that. And all she had to say was, 'Where's the bourbon?' Anyway she would stop-Billy wouldn't stop her-she'd say, 'Where's the... sorry,' and she'd shake her hands. I told Billy, 'I think we've got a million feet of Marilyn going like this: [silence, frozen]'. I didn't know if he could use it, but there was a lot of it. She would go out the door, close it, and Billy would say roll 'em and back she'd be again, 'Where's the... sorry.' This went on and on and on. Billy started giving her direction between takes that was incredible, I mean he dreamed up every conceivable thing in the world to give her to get those words out and play 'em in every and any conceivable legitimate way-none of it worked.
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A famously difficult Marilyn Monroe keeping Jack and Tony on their toes (United Artists - Courtesy of MoMa.)
