Trivia / My Week with Marilyn

• Ability over Appearance: Presumably what they were going for in casting Michelle Williams, who doesn't look all that much like Marilyn Monroe.
• All-Star Cast: The film stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Julia Ormond, and Judi Dench. Not to mention cameo appearances by Emma Watson, Toby Jones, Dougray Scott, Michael Kitchen, Jim Carter and Derek Jacobi.
• Fake American: Scottish Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller and English Toby Jones and Dominic Cooper as Arthur Jacobs and Milton Greene respectively.
• Playing Against Type: Judi Dench takes a break from playing acid-tongued old ladies like M and Lady Catherine to play the kind and motherly Dame Sybil Thorndike.
• Star-Making Role: This gave Eddie Redmayne a real career boost, eventually leading to Les Misérables (2012) and his Oscar-winning role in The Theory of Everything.
• Starring a Star as a Star: A cornucopia of stars playing the stars of yesteryear. We have Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, and Dame Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Scarlett Johansson was the first choice to play Marilyn Monroe but turned it down. Kate Hudson and Amy Adams were also considered.
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones was the first choice for Vivien Leigh. But she declined to spend more time with her husband. Rachel Weisz was the second choice, but she was too busy with other projects - and so Julia Ormond was cast.
  • Ralph Fiennes was originally approached to play Olivier, but turned the part down so he could work on his directorial debut Coriolanus (ironically, one of Olivier's own signature stage roles). Jeremy Irons was also considered.

---