A rare 1960 Marilyn Monroe audio interview during making of "Let's Make Love" Photos and footage P/6

So, uh, I might leave something out, but, uh, I don't think I'd, uh, no, I don't think I'd lie. At least if I would try. It's difficult. But I do want to be wonderful. You know, when I walked out of 20th Century Fox and I went to New York and I stayed for, I don't know how many months, 15 months, 13 months, I don't know how many months, and the lawyer, you know, he said, uh, oh, he was telling me about my tax deductions, my, I don't know what, and about, oh, the lawyer for 20th Century Fox, and I said, I don't know about that. I only know I want to be wonderful. How do you say that to a corporation lawyer? He thinks you're mad. And that's at the bottom of everything, you know, that I do want. People were making them up. It's not true. There was nobody there that was smart. They never made them up. And they were often more advantaged by them, qualified. Yeah, like, you know, they ask you questions like, well, just an example, what do you wear to bed? Do you wear a pajama top, the bottoms of the pajamas, or a nightgown, or what kind of, so I say Chanel No. 5. Because it's the truth. And yet I don't want to say nude, you know, but it's the truth. Or, I don't know, all of those things come from the truth. If you ever get any of those things, you want to ask, what does it mean? I'll tell you where the truth comes from, or what it does mean. Because as I say, I don't, I leave things out. I don't elaborate sometimes. Because otherwise it's hard to know where to start if you don't start with the truth. Okay, here, I get up early in the morning. I jump into my clothes, get my belongings together, get in the car, and I have a driver. He brings me to the studio. And I have somebody waiting here who makes my breakfast. And they start with the hair and the makeup. And I eat while they're doing my hair. And then they leave it that way while the makeup man, he comes in, he does the makeup. And then they comb out the hair later. And they put on the body makeup and then the clothes. I don't like to rush this process. Because I find if I rush, I'm very tired. By the time I have to do a scene, I'm all worn out from rushing through the hair and the makeup and the clothes. So I like to do it leisurely, like I like to dress when I go out in the evening. I love to dress leisurely. I like to soak in the tub and leisurely. I like music. I think that we're rushing too much nowadays. That's why people get nervous. Well, I don't think I'm late all the time. But maybe it is because I can't go as fast as other people. You know, people, they get in automobiles, they run into each other. Because they never stop. They're going like that. And I don't think that mankind, it's intended for them to go like that. They're not supposed to be like machines. And I think you get more done the other way by doing it more sensibly, more leisurely. Mr. Cukor on this film has been very wonderful to me in as much as he lets me come in an hour later than I would usually come in. So it helps because I'm fresher at the end of the day. It helps. He says he does it for my work. And I think it's so. I think actors in movies work too long hours, you know, for too long. Always, nearly always. Sometimes I feel a dune set over me. Just as I'm walking on the stage, it's just like a dune sets on me. I don't know why, but I get over it sometimes. Sometimes it lasts all day. Well, I want to do my best, the best that I can do in that moment. When the camera starts until it stops. That moment I want to be perfect. As perfect as I can make it. I used to go to movies on Saturday night when, for instance, when I worked in a factory. And that was my only time that I could enjoy myself, really. That I really relaxed and enjoyed. This is on tape. You're trying to think. Excuse us. And so I used to be very disappointed if I went to a movie because I waited all week to go to the movie. And I worked hard for the money that I spent. And if I went to a movie and it's a bad movie, I thought people didn't do their best, kind of did it sloppy or something. I really was mad, you know, angry when I left because then I didn't have anything to go on for a whole week and wait for another week. So I always feel that I work for the ones who work hard and they go to the box office and put down their money and they want to be entertained. I always feel I do it for them. But I do care because I know how the others feel, you know. They've worked hard all week. My favorite stars then? Oh, I liked anybody who was good. Sometimes they'd be good, sometimes they wouldn't, you know. Oh, that was when I was very small. That's when I was seven years old. When I was seven years old, my favorite was Jean Harlow. And the reason why she was my favorite was because she had white hair and I had white hair.