Arthur Miller's long-quiet voice on Marilyn Monroe is suddenly very loud. In newly published recordings spanning nearly 30 years, the playwright reflects on his turbulent five-year marriage to Monroe, describing a relationship defined by her fragility, his sense of responsibility, and a mounting inevitability about her death. Speaking to friend and biographer Christopher Bigsby, Miller recalls feeling that "death was always on her shoulder," recounting an incident in which doctors had to save her after she ingested enough pills "to kill her." He believed no one could ultimately "hold her back," reports the Guardian.
The tapes, now transcribed in Bigsby's book The Arthur Miller Tapes: A Life in His Own Words, show Miller saying he realized within months of their 1956 wedding that he had made a mistake. He portrays Monroe as both sharp and funny, yet deeply insecure and needing a partner who would be "father, lover, friend, agent" and never criticize her. After a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy, he doubted that motherhood—a dream she cherished—would have eased her burdens, speculating that a child would have been "an additional problem" amid the pressures of Hollywood and her mental health struggles.
Miller says the pair grew estranged on the set of The Misfits, the 1961 film he wrote for her, and that by the time shooting wrapped "we weren't speaking." He also widens the lens beyond Monroe, linking the explosive success of Death of a Salesman to the collapse of his first marriage and admitting he became "totally immersed" in work to the point he now wonders "how anybody could live with me at all." Despite his reputation, he tells Bigsby his career was undercut by "a struggle with self-doubt," with only a small fraction of his writing ever making it into public view. Meanwhile, the London Times takes an extensive look at Monroe's final interview, given to Life five weeks before her death and being released in full this year in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday.
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