{"id":2713,"date":"2026-06-01T23:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/01\/marilyn-before-marilyn-new-book-reveals-the-transformation-from-star-eyed-teen-to-hollywood-legend\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T23:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:11:00","slug":"marilyn-before-marilyn-new-book-reveals-the-transformation-from-star-eyed-teen-to-hollywood-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/01\/marilyn-before-marilyn-new-book-reveals-the-transformation-from-star-eyed-teen-to-hollywood-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn Before Marilyn: New Book Reveals the Transformation From Star-Eyed Teen to Hollywood Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tThe authors and screenwriters Joshua John Miller and Mark Fortin, who are both domestic and professional partners, are Zooming from the Chateau Marmont, under a Salvador Dal\u00ed print, and with their dark hair and thick beards it\u2019s difficult to tell them apart. It\u2019s even harder when listening to the recording of the interview, since they have similar timbers, finish each other\u2019s thoughts and speak with equal passion about the subject of their gorgeous new book, The Marilyn Monroe Century.<\/a> <\/em>The visually stunning tome, timed to Marilyn\u2019s centenary, recounts the friendship and creative collaboration between Josh\u2019s grandfather Bruno Bernard, a Jewish German immigrant who became a legendary showbiz photographer, and Hollywood\u2019s most iconic movie star. Many of Bernard\u2019s photos from the book are featured in the Academy Museum<\/a>\u2019s new exhibition<\/a>, Marilyn Monroe<\/a>: Hollywood Icon.<\/em> \t<\/p>\n

\tThe tale begins on Sunset Boulevard in 1945, when Bernard \u2014 whom Fortin describes as \u201cshockingly non-problematic\u201d \u2014 uncharacteristically wolf-whistled an unknown, teenaged Norma Jeane Dougherty and invited her to his studio for a photo shoot. Bernard, whose photos of her would grace numerous magazine covers, became Norma Jeane\u2019s confidant and something like a manager, a camera-toting Virgil guiding her into the Tinseltown inferno as she developed the persona that would become Marilyn Monroe. <\/p>\n

\tThe book draws heavily from Bernard\u2019s detailed diary. But it\u2019s also \u201chaunted,\u201d as Miller puts it, by the experience of Bernard\u2019s daughter \u2014 Miller\u2019s mother \u2014 Susan Bernard, a Playboy <\/em>playmate and star of such B exploitation movies as Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill <\/em>(1965) and The Killing Kind <\/em>(1963). Miller and Fortin, who co-created the TV Queen of the South <\/em>and co-wrote the slasher comedy Final Girls<\/em>, see themselves as following the legacy of David Lynch by telling stories of \u201cwomen in trouble\u201d \u2014 which in Los Angeles leaves them with no shortage of source material. But while Marilyn, who died of an overdose in 1962 at age 36, has often been depicted as a tragic victim of Hollywood exploitation, Fortin and Miller\u2019s book presents her in a more complicated light, as \u201can architect of her own image.\u201d As the writers tell me in our interview, she knew exactly what she wanted and how to get there. \t<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019m sure you see the filmic potential of the story of your grandfather and Marilyn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tJOSHUA JOHN MILLER <\/strong>We just had a very substantial meeting with one of favorite producing companies at the studio that raised their hand for the book. And we all collectively agreed that the Norma Jeane story has never really been told. We all know the Marilyn story \u2014 that mythology is very clear and well known \u2014 but the early days of who Norma Jeane really was, and the sort of Faustian deals that had to happen for her to become Marilyn, no. And also what\u2019s not known is how much agency she had in that journey.<\/p>\n

\tMARK FORTIN<\/strong> <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s tempting for some people to look at Marilyn\u2019s story as either, Isn\u2019t she fabulous? Or it\u2019s Rob Zombie\u2019s house of horrors. And with respect to both aspects, what sort of gets lost in the shuffle, is that she very much was an architect of her image, of that persona she created. She was extremely canny in terms of cameras, and she knew how to mold herself into something that was undeniable. None of it was accidental.<\/p>\n

\tMILLER<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The movie is really going to focus on this romantic friendship between Marilyn and my grandfather. I think it\u2019ll be good for actors because a lot of actors would be afraid of playing Marilyn Monroe, but we all determined internally: You don\u2019t see \u201cMarilyn\u201d until the last frame of the movie.<\/p>\n

\tShe looked so different from Norma Jeane by that point. There have been reports that she\u2019d had work done.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tMILLER <\/strong>That is true, that\u2019s all in the book. She did have work done, per the advice of Johnny Hyde, the vice president of William Morris. The quick short story of it is that she had been dropped for the third time by the studios, and this was Columbia, and she called him hysterical. She was always on the verge of something. And [Bruno] said, \u201cLet\u2019s go to the desert. I have an assignment in Palm Springs for Redbook,<\/em> why don\u2019t I take you out there and take some pictures and introduce you to some people at the Raquet Club?\u201d And that weekend was very formative in terms of their friendship, but it was also the turning point, when they were sitting by the pool, and Johnny Hyde asked my grandfather\u2026. \t<\/p>\n

\tFORTIN<\/strong> <\/strong>\u201cWho\u2019s this dame?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMILLER <\/strong>And Johnny was very Machiavellian. He immediately assigned her to his nephew, Norman Brokaw, who, as we know, would go on to become the head of William Morris after Johnny died. Marilyn was Norman\u2019s first client. He got her first contract at 20th, I think, for $125 a week with a $20 bump, and then he had her adjust the chin and the nose. Norman told my grandfather he didn\u2019t want to take any more pictures of her in a two-piece bathing suit, it was too scandalous, only in a full bathing suit.<\/p>\n

\tFor stars at that time, a photographer was, as my grandfather said, their best friend, their mentor, their confidant, their stylist, their career manager, because so many of the pictures then were in magazines, and that\u2019s what got the attention of 20th Century Fox for Marilyn\u2019s first contract. All of it was curated by Bruno with Marilyn \u2014 Norma Jeane at the time. The outfits, the look, the makeup\u2026 \u00a0Nowadays you have a team of what, 50 people running a particular celebrity or an Instagram star? This was all DIY, this was all in-house, and the photographers ran it. Bruno was also deeply invested, because how could you not be?<\/p>\n

\tHow much do you think Marilyn was a self-invention? How much was something imposed on her by all of these powerful men around her?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tFORTIN <\/strong>It really wasn\u2019t something that was imposed on her. By the time that she meets Johnny Hyde, she\u2019s already lightened her hair. She has, with Bruno\u2019s help, studied the walk of burlesque star Lili St. Cyr, who was dubbed Miss Swivel Hips, and so she\u2019s altered the way she walks. She\u2019s also started taking elocution lessons and started to develop the Marilyn Monroe voice that we know so well, which was not Norma Jeane\u2019s natural voice, so she was absolutely the one who was in pole position for creating the persona that she ultimately became incredibly famous for. \t<\/p>\n

\tMILLER <\/strong>It\u2019s interesting, because you know, we look at these things through sort of a post-Me Too lens, right? And for example, the Academy has been using one of the pinup pictures my grandfather took of her in a two-piece bathing suit on this sort of green barrel, green barrel, and they posted it, and one person commented: \u201cHow can the Academy post a picture of Marilyn this two-piece bathing suit? This is exploitation of her all over again!\u201d And of course the truth is, that two-piece bathing suit? Marilyn walked into my grandfather\u2019s studio \u2014 this was maybe their fourth or fifth sitting \u2014 and she said, I got these new clothes, I have this new hair, I\u2019m working on this new voice. I want you, Bernie, to take more sexy pictures of me.<\/p>\n

\tFORTIN\u00a0 <\/strong>Bruno was the one who resisted. He was pushing to keep her as the sort of the girl next door, adorable secretary, schoolgirl, that kind of thing. And Marilyn was the one who was like, No, let\u2019s step it up.<\/p>\n

\tMILLER\u00a0 <\/strong>Were there wolves? Yes, it\u2019s Hollywood, it\u2019s the 40s, post\u2013World War Two, the wolves are everywhere, and they still are. But two things could be true, I think she was inventing it, but I also think other people were imposing it in different ways as well. But what I think gets lost in the mythology \u2014 or if you look at that movie Blonde<\/em>, it only paints her as a victim. It\u2019s trying to tell a story about how she was exploited, but in the end, the absence of her having any agency in her life, or of talking about all the incredible, pioneering things she did, are never even addressed in this movie, so as a result it just feels like a victim narrative. \t<\/p>\n

\tFORTIN\u00a0<\/strong>As beautifully made as it is.<\/p>\n

\tMILLER\u00a0<\/strong>It felt like trauma porn, honestly.<\/p>\n

\tFORTIN<\/strong> And focusing on Marilyn and a bathing suit, and calling that exploitation sort of diverts the conversation away from where she actually was<\/em> exploited. She was exploited by her own studio, Fox. She was exploited by [20th Century Fox studio head] Darryl Zanuck. [Columbia Pictures chief] Harry Cohn, apparently, allegedly, made a pass at her, and her contract at Columbia got thrown out when she resisted the casting couch.<\/p>\n

\n

MILLER\u00a0 <\/strong>And then 20th really tortured her, torture at the because she broke out of the 20th contract and spoke out about it, and then when she did a couple movies with her own production company, which was totally vanguard at that time in New York, she then went back to 20th to go make the last movie [the unfinished Something\u2019s Got to Give<\/em>]. They really tortured her, and they wanted to get back at her for having spoken out against the studio, for having broken her contract, and then renegotiated for a higher fee.<\/p>\n

Below, Miller and Fortin select three of their favorite images from the book:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tMarilyn Monroe \u2014 then Norma Jeane Dougherty \u2014 bandaging Rolf the German Shepherd, photographed by Bruno Bernard in 1945. \u201cPosing like that was her idea,\u201d says Fortin. \u201cShe was really adept at coming up with narratives for images, and not just sitting there, looking pretty. She was always attracted to, like, What\u2019s the story? This image is not so much sexy as it is adorable, and very loving. One of Bruno\u2019s first impressions of her was that she was an animal lover. That was indication of what he saw as her heart.\u201d<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tNorma Jeane Dougherty, photographed by Bruno Bernard as a schoolgirl in 1946. \u201cI see a young woman searching for a place of belonging,\u201d says Miller, \u201cand I see my grandfather in her as well, like he\u2019s also searching to belong. I see the connection and the safety she felt with my grandfather in those pictures. She felt safe with him. My grandfather had this incredible ability to disarm people.\u201d<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tMonroe backstage at the Hollywood Bowl in 1953. \u201cShe\u2019s dressed in the \u2018Gentleman Prefer Blondes\u2019 outfit,\u201d says Miller. \u201cShe had no money, and she\u2019s the biggest star in the world. She had to borrow a dress to go to this charity event, which was at the Hollywood Bowl, and the last time she was there was a kid, she had gone there with her orphanage. It\u2019s very Lynchian.\u201d<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The authors and screenwriters Joshua John Miller and Mark Fortin, who are both domestic and professional partners, are Zooming from the Chateau Marmont, under a Salvador Dal\u00ed print, and with their dark hair and thick beards it\u2019s difficult to tell them apart. It\u2019s even harder when listening to the recording of the interview, since they have similar timbers, finish each other\u2019s thoughts and speak with equal passion about the subject of their gorgeous new book, The Marilyn Monroe Century. The visually stunning tome, timed to Marilyn\u2019s centenary, recounts the friendship and creative collaboration between Josh\u2019s grandfather Bruno Bernard, a Jewish German immigrant who became a legendary showbiz photographer, and Hollywood\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1622,265,2,255,381,1557],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academy-museum","category-books","category-hollywood","category-lifestyle","category-lifestyle-news","category-marilyn-monroe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}