A closer look

Marilyn Monroe required forty-seven separate takes just to deliver the simple three-word line 'It's me, Sugar' while filming the comedy classic Some Like It Hot. The legendary blonde bombshell was dealing with severe personal issues and pill addictions at the time, making it nearly impossible for her to remember basic dialogue. Director Billy Wilder eventually had to resort to writing her lines on a chalkboard just off-camera to drag a usable performance out of her. Hollywood has spent decades marketing her as the ultimate paragon of glamorous, effortless mid-century beauty, completely glossing over the fact that making a movie with her was apparently a soul-crushing exercise in patience. It perfectly summarizes the dark reality of classic cinema: the audience sees a flawless, radiant goddess on the silver screen, while the exhausted crew off-camera is desperately holding up cue cards for an adult woman who cannot remember three words