Julie Pici as Marilyn Monroe
Who would’ve guessed it? I certainly didn’t. When DFWDiamonds asked if I could portray Marilyn Monroe for their grand opening last night, I thought they were out of their minds. But with a great costume, some creative makeup and restyling of a wig (twice), I think it all came out rather well.
I only had a little over a week to put this together: get the costume, find a wig, style it, get the makeup down, research her movements and speaking patterns, then coreograph “Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend”, find the right shoes…I didn’t think I could do it. I also didn’t think I could make myself look like her, especially since she was a size 16 and I’m a meezley size 2. But I tried and I think I did a pretty good job.
These photos are taken during the costume and makeup documentation session I had to make sure that it was “working”. I figured that if I could sound and act like her, then people would be more forgiving about the look and stature. During the event I received some comments such as “Marilyn, you lost weight!” But overall the comments were positive. People really liked my portrayal of her and thought I did a great job getting into character, even though the resemblance was off a bit (I even had a lady tell me her daughter is an LA casting director and she wanted to have her meet me. Her daughter was visiting her but not at the event. But as you can see, I’m still here and not jet-setting off to LA for a part in a major movie. The meeting never took place.) The one major flaw is that I have her hair parted on the wrong side. It’s amazing how you get into researching the details and then a major one slips by you. Oh well…time for restyle #3.
This is a picture of Marilyn in 1959 during her shoot on “Some Like It Hot”.
These are my pictures from the documentation session:
All makeup is done with Arbonne products.
Professional photos were taken during the event, so once I receive those I’ll post them as well. (They’re more action photos and interactive ones.) Check back later for more photos.
