Williams channels Monroe’s persona

LOS ANGELES – Her eyes were searching the grounds of the Beverly Hills Hotel, peeking over the bougainvillea at a row of terra cotta-roofed buildings.

“I always wonder which bungalow was hers,” said Michelle Williams, staring into the distance at a lodging that could have been home to Marilyn Monroe. The icon, whom Williams plays in the film “My Week With Marilyn,” lived at the hotel in the late 1950s while in production on the movie “Let’s Make Love.”

“Is it too pretentious to say I feel I have a relationship with her?” the actress said suddenly, as if she could feel the blond’s spirit. “The more time I spend with her, the closer I feel to her.”

On the surface, Williams, 31, doesn’t seem to share much in common with the tragic star. Monroe was all curves and soft flesh; Williams is pixie-like. Monroe affected a ditsy persona that many critics abhorred, and she was never nominated for an Academy Award; Williams, a two-time Oscar nominee, quotes the likes of Gustave Flaubert and Walt Whitman. The late actress was beholden to the studio system; Williams often opts for noncommercial, independent films such as the minimal “Meek’s Cutoff” or the emotionally raw “Blue Valentine.”

Still, on the set of “My Week With Marilyn” – which opens today– Williams felt an inexplicable connection to Monroe. During the shoot, she found meaning in seemingly ridiculous things – like an article in the National Enquirer.

“There was a story about a psychic who had come into contact with Marilyn, and she said Marilyn approved of what I was doing. That took on a lot of meaning for me,” she admitted. “Maybe it was Marilyn, but I felt more fragile than I usually do on this movie. I felt more dependent on other people’s kindnesses. I would live off a compliment that the cameraman gave me for two weeks. It would feed me. It would get me out of bed.”

“My Week With Marilyn” is drawn from two memoirs by Colin Clark, an on-set “gofer” during the 1956 production of “The Prince and the Showgirl.” Berated by her co-star and director Sir Laurence Olivier and facing the dissolution of her marriage with Arthur Miller, Monroe reportedly sought refuge in a quasi-romantic relationship with Clark, nearly a decade her junior.

While Monroe wore her vulnerability openly, Williams has long appeared outwardly resilient, even as she has faced difficulties as challenging as those Monroe experienced. At 15, the Montana native struck out on her own, legally emancipating herself from her parents and moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. At 25, she and her “Brokeback Mountain” co-star Heath Ledger became parents to a daughter. Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose three years later, and Williams has raised their child, Matilda, as a single mother.

After his death, Williams struggled to find her footing in Hollywood. She took a year off, she said, “unsure of how I would go back, or if I wanted to go back” to acting. After she began to emerge from the fog of grief, she recommitted herself to the craft and decided to take a more gut-driven approach to her career.

Director Simon Curtis decided to shoot “My Week With Marilyn” at Pinewood Studios, where “The Prince and the Showgirl” was filmed more than 50 years ago. Both actresses were 30 when they were on the film stage just outside London.

During filming, Curtis said, he noticed Williams’ delicateness, so he tried to give her additional time and space for her process.

“I wanted to give her as many takes as I could, because there’s something about creating this performance – you never quite knew when Marilyn would pop,” said the filmmaker, who would sometimes do 12 takes of a scene with the actress. “I just felt she needed and deserved tremendous support, and I hope – unlike Marilyn – she got it.”

Williams’ performance has already generated lead-actress buzz for the Academy Awards. (Her previous nominations came for her supporting turn in 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” and her leading role in last year’s “Blue Valentine.”)

Williams said “My Week With Marilyn” helped her to finally grow up. It was both the biggest challenge she’s ever taken on and the most fulfilling, she added, because it helped her to accept herself.

“I think I became an adult making this movie. I’ve always been scared of myself somehow. Or apologetic or something,” she said quietly. “I just felt for a long time that I was grappling with something I couldn’t quite master or understand. But I’ve been a parent for six years now. I have an amazing daughter, and at some point in the last year, it dawned on me that has to have something to do with me. And I need to give myself a break.”