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American Morning
'The Final Days' of Marilyn Monroe
Aired May 23, 2001 - 10:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a thought that might make you feel old. On June 1, Marilyn Monroe, if she were still alive, would be 75 years old -- just a thought there.
As we come upon that big day, what would have a been day for Marilyn Monroe, there's a new documentary coming out looking at her life. And we have one of the men who made that documentary to give us a look ahead at that and also a look at her life.
It's Kevin Burns. He helped produce "The Final Days" of Marilyn Monroe. Kevin is in our Los Angeles bureau and joins us this morning.
I know it's a little bit early out there. Kevin, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
KEVIN BURNS, PRODUCER, "THE FINAL DAYS": Thank you.
KAGAN: Seventy-five years old -- it's hard to picture a Marilyn Monroe at 75.
BURNS: Yes, it is. It is.
KAGAN: And yet you have pictures of her in the final days of her life, especially looking at the final movie that she was making. That movie was called -- would have been called "Something's Got to Give" or "My Favorite Wife," in which Marilyn Monroe plays the role of a mother.
BURNS: Right. Right.
She had played a mother before early in her career. But this was at the time when she was a very big, established star. So her playing a mother and a wife-to-be was a departure for her. This would have been a departure and new phase in her career, she hoped.
KAGAN: I think we actually have a clip that we can listen to of the movie. So let's go ahead and listen in to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS: Oh, Timmy, you've hurt yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let go of me. MONROE: Timmy, you know, far away in the South Sea islands, when a man hurts himself and he doesn't want people to see him cry, you know what he does?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
MONROE: He has somebody else cry for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does that help?
MONROE: You would be surprised. Can I cry for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's silly.
MONROE: I'm going ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm OK now.
MONROE: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: So this was a movie, Kevin, that Marilyn Monroe started but didn't finish, because she was having so many problems, as I understand it, she ended up getting fired.
BURNS: Right. Right.
KAGAN: Can you tell us more about that?
BURNS: Well, she was -- she had done several different films before this outside of 20th Century Fox. And this was a return to 20th Century Fox for her. And she was really not prepared to do it. But she was under contract, a contract that pretty much forced her into production with this, probably before the script and the production was ready and before she was really ready.
KAGAN: Well, and you say she wasn't prepared. What kind of problems was she having at this point in her life?
BURNS: Well, Marilyn had a history for many years prior to this film of having emotional problems. One of the people we interviewed, the doctor -- her physician -- said that it was acknowledged that she had a bipolar personality, manic depressive personality.
And it was made worse by the fact that she was incredibly insecure as a person and as an actress. She took a lot of medication, most of which was prescribed -- some of it wasn't -- and then had a habit of mixing those medications with champagne, primarily. And so it was a formula for disaster. She was a very sad, tortured personality, but a very lovable personality.
I mean, everyone who worked with her loved her. She was very sweet. I think one of the things that comes through very well in this program is that, in the dailies -- you see her in unedited outtakes in dailies as she was working. And even under very adverse conditions, there's a great scene where she's with a dog who isn't performing. And it's take after take after take of this dog, and yet she...
KAGAN: I think we have that. Here it is -- if you can see the monitor.
BURNS: Oh, great. Great.
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: So these are actually outtakes?
BURNS: These are -- I think those are the outtakes.
KAGAN: Yes.
BURNS: But she goes through it with great humor and never loses her composure.
KAGAN: And so we get to see more of these outtakes in the documentary?
BURNS: Well, we found -- as we were doing this program, we found 9 1/2 hours of unedited material. We found all of what they saved at 20th Century Fox from this production, which, so far as we know, is everything that was shot and printed to be cut into a film.
And, I mean, you see her there. She's just really incredible.
KAGAN: Yes. You can here -- the laughter just coming right out.
Certainly, a lot of people have looked at Marilyn Monroe's life before this piece. What did you learn about her?
BURNS: Well, I learned -- I think one of the things I learned was what a sense of humor she had, and that her -- the difficulty with Marilyn was primarily that she was insecure and had a problem coming on the set and performing at all, not that she was temperamental or difficult in that kind of a way -- not abusive at all.
And that's why the people around her -- and you see it also in the program -- you see George Cukor and particularly Dean Martin and her co-stars treating her very, very kindly and being very patient with her. But it must have been very frustrating. I mean, this was a woman hardly showed up for work and couldn't really get through the day.
KAGAN: So "The Final Days" airs on what would have been Marilyn Monroe's 75th birthday. Tell our viewer where they can see the show.
BURNS: Yes, it airs on American Movie Classics on June 1. And it also comes out on DVD from Fox Home Entertainment, along with the Marilyn diamond collection.
KAGAN: We will...
BURNS: So it's a very exciting package.
KAGAN: We will look forward to that.
Kevin Burns, thanks for joining us and showing us those pictures this morning. It's good to see you.
BURNS: Thank you.
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