Jack Noseworthy goes inside the troubled mind of Marilyn Monroe as her therapist Alan DeShields in the new Lifetime miniseries "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe."
Noseworthy plays the only fictional character in the biopic, based on the biography by J. Randy Taraborrelli, that pulls back the layers on Monroe's (Kelli Garner) relationship with her mentally ill mother (Susan Sarandon) and the struggle to keep her public image separate from her private life.
"All the men in her life were father figures. She was always looking for her father so the device in the film was they wanted a contemporary male figure to be talking to her. So they created my character," Noseworthy tells Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview.
Monroe invites Dr. DeShields to her home in Brentwood to evaluate him as a possible therapist, a routine she carried out often, interviewing potential doctors and therapists in search of a new therapy strategy to figure out her emotional state.
"Marilyn had a doctor file. She had so many doctors and therapists and she was an incredibly smart girl. So she was always interviewing these therapists and trying to find a new type of therapy to get into," Noseworthy says. "It was an addiction. It really was another addiction for her."
As a young child, Monroe would either stay with her Aunt Grace (Emily Watson) or be forced to live in an orphanage while her mother sought treatment or skipped town with another man.
"Her aunt had her own family and husband. When times were tough, they had to put Marilyn in the orphanage just to take care of her because they were going through the [Great] Depression," Noseworthy explains. "When they had some money, they would take her out. She would live with the family for a little while and then they'd put her back in. It was a very rough childhood."
Beyond the performances, Noseworthy praises the crew for creating a beautifully shot series that "gelled really well" with the actors on-screen. Everyone from director Laurie Collyer and her cinematographer Chris Manley down to the costume designers and make up artists maintained the same "head space"
"It seemed like everyone had the same artistic ambition," he says. "I'm so proud of all the departments and how they worked together and created this movie because they succeed. We succeeded."
And for those of you who still think they know everything about Marilyn Monroe and don't need to watch a new series on the legendary actress, Noseworthy has just one thing to say:
"You don't know Marilyn the way you think you know Marilyn."
"The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" starts tonight, May 30 at 8 p.m. and continues tomorrow for part two at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
