Did Marilyn Monroe Date Charlie Chaplin's Son? The Truth Behind 'Blonde'
Netflix's Marilyn Monroe film Blonde, starring Ana de Armas in the lead role has finally been released on the streaming platform.
The highly-anticipated - and much-delayed - movie is based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates and contains fictionalized versions of events from Monroe's life.
Blonde explores Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller but also reimagines some other romantic connections, including those with Charlie Chaplin's son, Charlie "Cass" Chaplin Jr., and actor Edward G. Robinson's son, Eddy Robinson, Jr.
While Blonde's director, Andrew Dominik, has recently described the movie as "all fiction," fans are still curious as to what the truth is about Monroe and Chaplin Jr., portrayed by de Armas and Xavier Samuel in the film.
Newsweek has everything you need to now about whether Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin's son dated.
Did Marilyn Monroe Date Charlie Chaplin's Son?
Charlie Chaplin, Jr., often known as Cass Chaplin, was the oldest son of Hollywood icon Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey.
According to IMDB, he was born May 5, 1925 in Beverly Hills, California, and grew up wanting to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue acting.
Chaplin Jr. had two wives; his first was Martha Brown (a nurse) and his second was Susan Magness, with who he welcomed one daughter, Susan Maree, in May 1959.
Writer Anthony Summers wrote a biography, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, in 1985 which, according to RadioTimes, details a relationship between Monroe, who died in 1962 at the age of 36, and Chaplin Jr., who died in 1968 at the age of 43.
This account of their relationship differs from the one that is portrayed in Blonde as, in the film, Monroe is shown as part of a "throuple" with Chaplin Jr. and Robinson Jr.
The biography alleges that Monroe was introduced to Chaplin Jr.'s family in 1947 when he brought her to his family home for lunch.
Chaplin Jr. also discussed his relationship with Monroe himself in his book, My Father, Charlie Chaplin, added RadioTimes.
His father was reportedly a big fan of Monroe, with the publication stating that in Chaplin Jr.'s book he writes: "'Oh, she's a beauty,' Dad [Charlie Chaplin] used to tell me. 'What a figure! I admire your taste, son, very much.'
"'Just watch out, son,' he [Chaplin] said. 'Don't fall in love yet. You have that education to take care of first.'"
Summers reportedly claims Chaplin Jr. was "enamored [of Monroe] for many months," and that a friend of the star said that "Marilyn would stay the night with Charlie. She would cram into a single bed with him, while brother Sydney slept in his bed in the same room."
While things between Chaplin Jr. and Monroe eventually ended, they are thought to have stayed friends.
How Accurate is Blonde?
Blonde director Dominik recently opened up about how true to real life the film is in an interview with the British Film Institute.
"The book is like a shattered mirror—there are all these little shards and it circles around, returning to certain memories," he said. "It's the feeling of being inside somebody's anxious thought process."
The filmmaker—who also helmed films like The Assassination of Jesse James and Chopper—went on to say that he had to "play fast and loose with the truth in order to have a certain narrative drive."
"Joyce is trying to understand how it expresses a certain female experience, or a certain human experience," he said of the author of the film's source material.
Dominik also confirmed that in the film, the scenes featuring Monroe's inner thoughts portrayed on screen are, of course, fictional.
"There are a lot of psychological processes that are dramatized in Blonde, a lot of Lacanian and Freudian ideas," he said.
"For me it was just the scenes I found compelling. I went with my instinct and wrote it pretty quick. And I didn't change it that much, even though it was sitting around for 14 years.
"I know the ways in which this is different from what people seem to agree happened. Not that everyone's sure. Nobody really knows what the f*** happened. So it's all fiction anyway, in my opinion."
Blonde is available to stream on Netflix now.
Adrian Brody, Bobby Canavale and Julianne Nicholson join de Armas in the cast.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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