Who Played Who in "My Week with Marilyn"? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The role of the biggest star of the film within the film was also the one that received the biggest accolades. Which actress was Oscar-nominated for her performance in the title role?

Answer: Michelle Williams

Williams received plaudits for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, as did Monroe for the film around which "My Week with Marilyn" was based, namely "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957). With the plaudits came award recognition for Williams with a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, losing out in the Oscar reckoning to Meryl Streep's performance as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady".

2. The central role was a lesser known character, although he later created a successful niche for himself in the movie business as a documentary maker. The Old Etonian "My" of the title, the son of a famous historian and television presenter, was played by another Old Etonian, an Olivier and Tony Award winner. Who was he?

Answer: Eddie Redmayne

The film is based upon Colin Clark's memoirs of his time working as third assistant director on "The Prince and the Showgirl", the film within "My Week with Marilyn". Clark was the son of famous historian Alan Clark, whose television show "Civilization" would be recognised as one of the finest documentary series to be made by the BBC in the 1970s, or indeed any era.

Clark was played by Eddie Redmayne, who had first made a name for himself on the stage, particularly when playing artist Mark Rothko in the play "Red", a role that earned him both an Olivier for the London production and a Tony when it transferred to Broadway.

Whether Clark's account of his personal relationship with Marilyn as depicted in the book and reproduced uncritically in the film, is a true story is a matter of debate.

3. The director of the film within the film was a man better known for his acting. Playing him was a man who many would suggest has been trying to be that director for much of his career anyway. Which actor/director was cast in this role?

Answer: Kenneth Branagh

Laurence Olivier, the director of "The Prince and the Showgirl", had clearly inspired Branagh in the early part of his career. Branagh made his name with his own version of Shakespeare's "Henry V" (1989) in which he directed himself in the lead role, much as Olivier had done himself some 50 years earlier.

When Branagh also directed himself as "Hamlet" (1996), the film that had seen Olivier win both acting and directing Oscars in 1949, the connection between the two was cemented.

4. The lead character's love interest, if you assume that Marilyn was his lust interest, was a girl from the costume department. She was played by an actress for whom "My Week with Marilyn" represented the first big screen venture since the end of the franchise that had made her name, the "Harry Potter" movies. Who was the actress?

Answer: Emma Watson

Emma Watson is, and probably ever shall be, known for her role as Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" film series, a role that she won at the age of just nine and that made her quite spectacularly famous. In "My Week with Marilyn" she played one of the many unknown faces that support the making of any given film, a wardrobe assistant. Colin Clark forms a friendship with her when he starts working on the film but soon leaves her standing as his "relationship" with Marilyn develops.

5. The troubled second wife of the director of the film within the film had been overlooked for playing the lead role despite her success in the stage version of the play. Which British actress, known for "Smilla's Feeling for Snow" played the spurned double-Oscar winner?

Answer: Julia Ormond

Julia Ormond played the beautiful English actress, Vivien Leigh. By the time the film takes place, the marriage of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier was collapsing, in part because of Leigh's declining mental condition. A sufferer of bipolar disorder since early adulthood, Leigh had suffered increasingly severe episodes as she got older. She herself claimed that her performance as Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire", first on stage and then in an Oscar-winning turn in Elia Kazan's 1951 film, had "tipped me over into madness." By 1957, when "The Prince and the Showgirl" was released, Leigh was in the early stages of recovery from a prolonged bout of depression brought on by a miscarriage the previous year. A year later, she had given up on her marriage and started an affair, one that would continue beyond her divorce from Olivier in 1960.

Sadly, Julia Ormond was given little screen time to explore such a complex character and was very much in the shadow of her more famous on-screen husband.

6. It takes a dame to play a dame. Much of the light relief of the piece came from a character who had been a star of British stage and screen since the early days of talking pictures. Which Oscar-winning dame, whose film career started as her character's was ending, played the actress in the film?

Answer: Judi Dench

Dame Judi Dench played the veteran British actress, Dame Sybil Thorndike. Thorndike's first stage performance came in 1904, so by the time of "The Prince and the Showgirl" she had seen most of what the movie world was capable of. Therefore Judi Dench's portrayal of her as the kind and conciliatory dame rang most true. Dench herself could claim to be similarly disposed, having made her stage debut in 1964 and establishing a huge reputation in British theatre long before she became known worldwide, following hit movies such as "Goldeneye" (1995) and "Mrs Brown" (1997). Dench's turn as Thorndike earned her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTA Film Awards, neatly mirroring Thorndike, who herself received a similar nomination for "The Prince and the Showgirl" from the National Board of Review.

7. Its rare that a cinematographer's name gets far beyond the closing credits but the one portrayed in the film is probably better known than the actor who played him in "My Week with Marilyn". Who was the legendary cameraman, responsible for the imagery in such great films as "The Red Shoes" and "The African Queen", who was behind the camera in the film within the film?

Answer: Jack Cardiff

Jack Cardiff, played in "My Week with Marilyn" by Karl Moffat, was a legendary cinematographer. His film career began as an actor in the silent era before moving behind the camera in 1935. His career really took off when he teamed up with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1943.

He made only three films with the pair--following the success of "Black Narcissus" (1947), for which he won an Oscar, and "The Red Shoes" (1948) he gained world renown that opened a path into Hollywood. By the time of "The Prince and the Showgirl", his standing was such that Marilyn Monroe was reputed to have asked specifically that Cardiff be the photographer on the film.

8. A brief role as the Royal Librarian was given to the careful custody of an actor who, like Laurence Olivier, had already had his own appointment with royalty when being made a knight in both Britain and Denmark. Which actor, who made his name in Shakespeare on stage and in TV series such as "I, Claudius" and "Cadfael", starred in this role?

Answer: Derek Jacobi

Derek Jacobi's career saw him work regularly with both Olivier and Kenneth Branagh. Olivier selected the unknown Jacobi to be part of the troupe that formed the National Theatre in the early 1960s. He made his film debut alongside Olivier's "Othello" in Stuart Burge's 1965 version of the play.

In later life he became part of Branagh's regular cast, appearing in both his "Henry V" (1989) and Hamlet (1996). Other film hits include parts in "Gladiator" (2000), Gosford Park (2001) and "Love is the Devil" (1998) as artist Francis Bacon, a portrayal that earned him a number of awards as best actor.

9. An important character in the film, albeit with limited screen time, was one of Marilyn's husbands, a man who was famous in his own right. At the time that the film was set they were newly married but spent little time together. Which Scottish actor played Monroe's husband number three?

Answer: Dougray Scott

Dougray Scott played the part of Arthur Miller, the legendary playwright responsible for such classics as "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible". Scott made his name in films such as "Mission Impossible II" and "Enigma".

Miller first met Monroe in 1951 when the pair commenced a brief affair. Five years later, Miller left his first wife and married Monroe. Filming for "The Prince and the Showgirl" began shortly after the marriage so the couple's arrival in the UK prompted an even bigger circus from the press than would have been expected anyway. Miller left before filming was complete, a choice that was shown in "My Week with Marilyn" to have further undermined Monroe's already fragile confidence. Shortly after his return, Miller was called in front of the House Un-American Activities Commission, accused of being a communist. Miller did not deny his political activities and Monroe stood by him at his appearance, risking her own career.

Despite this apparent solid support for each other, Miller and Monroe's marriage was not to last. By the time Monroe was filming "The Misfits" (1961), penned by her husband, the marriage had developed seismic faults. On set, these faults became critical and soon after the film wrapped, and before it premiered, the pair divorced.

10. Marilyn's constant companion and mentor in the film was an acting coach who proved to be the bane of Laurence Olivier's existence. The wife of a legendary tutor, famed for teaching of "the method", she provided the apparently vital task of "buttering up" Marilyn during the making of the film within the film. Which British-American actress played her?

Answer: Zoe Wanamaker

Zoe Wanamaker's turn as Paula Strasberg was delivered straight but amusingly portrayed just why Olivier was so exasperated by her. The point at which Olivier reached the point of apoplexy was in the scene where, confused by Olivier's direction, she turned to Strasberg for advice. "Honey just think of Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra", she was told to the accompaniment of Olivier's eyes almost audibly rolling into the back of his head.

Olivier resented Strasberg's presence on set during the filming of "The Prince and the Showgirl", seeing her as offering nothing more than the ability to "butter up" Marilyn. Olivier had a clear dislike of "The Method", the acting technique championed by Strasberg and pioneered by her husband Lee Strasberg.

Lee had been a co-founder in 1951 of the Actors Studio, which produced such alumni as Al Pacino, Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman. Monroe enrolled in the Actors Studio in 1955 and when she was cast in "Bus Stop" later that year, she ditched her existing acting coach and brought Paula Strasberg into her entourage. She would remain her coach and companion for the remainder of her career. Following Monroe's early death, Lee Strasberg would read the eulogy at her funeral, describing her as "a member of our family... [who was] constantly reaching for perfection."

Source: Author Snowman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

A fair number of famous faces made appearances in the 2011 film, "My Week with Marilyn", both as actors and characters. But who played who?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>