The actress will play Marilyn Monroe’s mother in the Lifetime miniseries, The Hollywood Reporter explains.
Titled Marilyn, the four-hour project is based on J. Randy Taraborrelli’s 2010 book, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. The work has been considered the most definitive Monroe biography, detailing her relationship with her mother instead of just her role in the spotlight.
Academy Award winner Sarandon will play Marilyn’s mentally-ill mother, Gladys Mortenson, who is described as a “diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who is the product of a mother who committed suicide and a father who died of syphilitic insanity. She pushes Marilyn to avoid sex at all costs and develop her faith to find salvation.”
Lifetime’s official description of the project is: “Marilyn is both the personification of sex, whose first marriage ironically collapses because of her frigidity, and a fragile artist who seeks the approval and protection of men. But after tumultuous marriages with Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, she realizes she has the strength to stand on her own. She becomes the face and voice of an era, yet wants most of all to be someone’s mother and someone’s little girl. She’s the Marilyn you haven’t seen before, the artist who, by masking the truth with an image, gives her greatest performance.”
Asylum Entertainment’s Jonathan Koch and Steven Michaels will executive produce alongside Stephen Kronish and Keri Selig. The role of Marilyn has not yet been cast.