Michelle Williams for Vogue Magazine

Pretty photos, but it just looks like Michelle Williams w/ Marilyn hair to me.  I like the couch shot the best.

Gorgeous photos (I’d expect no less from Annie Liebovitz). But I think that as much as Michelle resembles Marilyn, she’s not capturing the inner Marilyn. The thing that made her so appealing, and compelling to watch was what was coming from behind her eyes – that inner light or complication or it-factor – and Michelle hasn’t captured that. Maybe it’s impossible to capture. But for that reason, the best picture, I think, it the one of her from behind. THAT one looks exactly like Marilyn (her body language).

–GothamTomato

That photo of her at the room service table is dead on. I can’t wait to see this.

Oh wow that couch picture is perfection

Huh. Not at ALL working for me. 

Honestly I’m not sold on her as Marilyn. Michelle Williams is beautiful and a brilliant actress, but there is a cadence, softness and naivety that Marilyn Monroe possessed that would be difficult for anyone to emulate; especially someone so young.

ehhhh, I know it would be impossible to have an exact facsimile of MM, but she just looks like she’s dressing up for an elaborate Halloween shoot. Hell, Pauley Perrette made a more convincing Marylin.

Wow… she did nail it.  Especially the picture in the Donna Karan.  I had to remind myself that is NOT Marilyn.  Amazing.

I think she looks like a modern interpretation of Marilyn.  She’s so thin, much thinner than Marilyn was, and I think the curves really made her what she was.  Would Miss Joan Holloway be the same if played by a little wispy thing like January?  I’m not advocating she should have gained weight for the role, just that maybe they should have tried to find someone with a little more meat, because that is what distracts me the most.

Just look at the final four shots in the Monique Lhuillier satin dress and diamond drop earrings . That’s an uber-Marilyn look but I don’t think she’s nailed it. She isn’t showing Marilyn’s vulnerability; she looks like a bored housewife at a cocktail party. 

But it’s just a photo shoot, probably done under chaotic conditions and not a living, breathing movie.

I really like Michelle Williams as an actress and I feel like this is a step down for her.

I mean, come on. When is this Monroe fetish going to end? Let’s face it – she was basically the Lindsay Lohan of her day. An actress with some potential but an absolute trainwreck of a human being who does not deserve to be propped up as an icon like this.

I agree with you guys. The eye makeup is all wrong. The best shots are the ones of her look downwards, where her lids look heavier. That said, Williams is an astonishing actress and I don’t doubt she will be amazing as Marilyn.

Other than the hair, I don’t see anything in these rather disappointing photos that evokes Marilyn.   

Not feeling it.  Marilyn had a teasing quality to her.  There was an intelligence that was hidden…but not completely.  Michelle’s intelligence is too self-evident.  Also, Michelle looks beautiful and healthy but the lack of curves takes away from the sensuality.  Part of Marilyn’s breathtaking image was her actual breathlessness from trying to contain all that voluptuous flesh.  I agree that you do not have to have the look 100% but in this case the image is the substance…and Michelle is a more modern beautiful woman.

I don’t think she looks a lot like Marilyn Monroe, but I know she’s a very good actress and that’s the most important quality going into this type of role – she needs to bring herself into it and not just do a MM impersonation that any drag queen could do.  If the look-a-like thing was so important then whoever played MM in the Jack Rabbit Slim scene in Pulp Fiction would have been the best portral ever.

the cover shot reads ……”Like this? You want me to look this way, is that it? Did I do it right? You want me to lean forward a bit, OK, hows this? Like that?”   I’m also thinking we went a little heavy on the dark roots….

i know lots of people are very protective of Marilyn.  there was only one but if this movie happens to be good & it protrays her correctly then i think its good for her fans. 

I agree that actors in biopics need not be clones of the original if they capture the essence of the person.  Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” comes to mind.  For the first 10 minutes, the visual conflict between the iconic face and the face seen on the screen is noticable until the portrayal replaces the icon.  By the end of “Frost/Nixon” I was sure I was watching Nixon himself, and if Nixon didn’t look exactly like that, he should have.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was an even farther reach as Capote, but he nailed it too.  Hope Michele accomplishes the same for Marilyn.  There’s no way to tell from still pictures.

That couch shot- my goodness. Props to Michelle Williams for not only being able to be dressed up as Marilyn, but truly embodying a sense of Marilyn being caught reading on her couch. It just pops to be in terms of realness.

She.  Looks.  NOTHING.  Like.  Marilyn.  NOTHHHHIIINNNGGG.

I think Michelle Williams is incredibly talented, but these do not look like Marilyn to me.  The only picture that could fool you is the one from behind.  The face just isn’t right, but if her performance is right, I won’t care too much.

to me, the only one that hits the right pitch is the one where she’s wearing donna karan. most of the rest just look too hard & modern.

i, also, dont care if the face matches the character that much if the acting is good. i hands down loved anthony hopkins as richard nixon & two people who look less alike would be hard to find. i like michelle williams, i think she will probably do a good job.

Sorry T&L; I usually totally agree with your take, but not this time around. As far as the face goes, there is none of MM’s softness or voluptuousness — especially in the Vogue cover, which almost tends toward the Ethel Mertz.

I’m baffled at how they could get the eye liner and brows SO wrong – that makeup was Marilyn’s signature, any self-respecting make-up artist should know that, right?

I’m baffled at how they could get the eye liner and brows SO wrong – that makeup was Marilyn’s signature, any self-respecting make-up artist should know that, right?

She looks a lot like Mira Sorvino to me in these pictures, at least.  I like her acting ability, so I think she’ll do well.

She looks a lot like Mira Sorvino to me in these pictures, at least.  I like her acting ability, so I think she’ll do well.

She looks a lot like Mira Sorvino to me in these pictures, at least.  I like her acting ability, so I think she’ll do well.

I don’t think that this photo spread was designed to be a Marilyn-impersonator re-creation.  Vogue tends to jump on whatever an actress is doing and then do something similar, but not EXACT.  I don’t think everyone can judge Michelle’s as-yet-unseen performance based on this shoot.  I DO appreciate the ode to Arthur Miller with the nerdy-cute male model in a couple of the pics.

It just aint workin. Just aint workin 

This Wiliams as Monroe is just the worst casting ever. No. just no.

Whenever I think of Marilyn Monroe, I think of Alyson Hannigan. Not that I’m suggesting that Hannigan would be a good choice to play Monroe – there are are many things that wouldn’t fit quite right – but because she has those qualities of sweetness and exuberance, and a little bit of that ‘juiciness’ that someone mentioned above.

I don’t see Marilyn Monroe at all in these pictures of Michelle Williams, sorry. Any actress can put on a platinum blond wig and say they look like Marilyn. Many actresses could do an imitation of of Monroe’s mannerisms. But as many have said, where Williams is lacking (besides not being voluptuous enough) is in the eyes.

I realize this is just a photo shoot and not the film itself, but she is clearly ‘playing’ Monroe in this pictures, and it doesn’t work for me. Look at her in the rooftop photo – she looks like she’s trying to imitate Monroe’s come-hither stare, but instead she just looks like she’s about to fall asleep. And the photos at the bottom – are her lips parted that way meant to be sexual? Because instead she just looks like she’s getting ready to bite you, and not in a friendly way.

I don’t think this is about Williams having too recognizable a face. I think she’s just wrong for the part. Even the greatest actors and actresses in the world aren’t right for every part.

I also don’t think any actor or actress has to perfectly capture the spirit of the person they’re playing – that’s always impossible, I think, as everyone is one-of-a-kind. But they can throw you enough of a line that you’re ready, willing, and able to suspend your disbelief to pretend you’re watching the person in question. If Michelle Williams does that for some people, more power to them. But I have my doubts that she’s going to be able to do that for me.

The dark roots throw me…Marilyn was careful like Gwen Stefani is today when it comes to making sure there were no photos of her with dark roots.

I wonder if the film is going to include her marriage to Arthur Miller.  The actor that appears in some of the photos is definitely styled as him.   I think Michelle Williams resembles later, more langorous Marilyn, though.

Of all the contemporary actresses, I suppose Michelle Williams is about the best choice in terms of “the basics” needed to bring about that ineffable Marilyn look. But let’s face it – even with the greatest of make-up, hair style and wardrobe to inch her closer, she is NOT nailing this. Only Marilyn was Marilyn, is Marilyn and always WILL be Marilyn. Projecting that iridescent mix of sex, girl-next-door, wounded little fawn and hard-as-nails temptress is one hell of a task. Even Marilyn herself ultimately lost the struggle. But I will say that these photos are devastatingly lovely, and Michelle Williams looks fabulous. It’s see her with a lot less waifishness and a lot more womanly glamour.

Alas, not at all.  Aside from the terrible roots, there is none of the innocence or sparkle that Marilyn had.  I don’t know who Michelle Williams is, but I hope she does a better job in the movie than she did in this photo shoot.  The only image of her that doesn’t seem completely contrived is the one on the couch.  But like has already been mentioned, as good as that shot is, it’s still calculated.  In short, it’s not just that she doesn’t LOOK like Marilyn, it’s that she does not EXUDE Marilyn.

Why isn’t Drew Barrymore playing this part?  Call me crazy, but she has a lot of the type of charm that made Marilyn unique.  There’s a youthfulness to her that stylized appropriately, would recall Marilyn very much.  She wouldn’t have to do anything annoying to her voice to get Marilyn’s natural breathiness, and she has that something special about her. 

I’ve never seen Madmen so I don’t know what sort of actress she is, but what about Christina Hendricks?  In every picture I’ve seen of her, she seethes sexiness.  Even when she’s doing dumb things to her boobs or looks like a sloppy mess, she’s still sexy.  She also has that innocence, that slight absence of self-awareness that makes you want to pat her on the head and say, “There, there.  You’ll figure it out some day.”

This is going to sound egotistic, but in many of these pictures I see…myself the morning after a rough night at a costume party.  Good work! 

No, sorry, she doesn’t look very convincing.

Pretty pictures, but she doesn’t look dead-on exactly like MM.  I think she actually looks a little like Kelly McGillis c.Top Gun.

Fabulous.