James Jagger, son of Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger (who looks from some angles exactly like his mum, and from others exactly like his dad) has auditioned for and is apparently in talks about portraying Colin Clark (Marilyn Monroe’s chaperon before and during the filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl”) in Simon Curtis’ “My Week With Marilyn.” The role is presumably a large one, as the film is based on Clark’s own memoir of the same name, and details the trips he went on with the star, skinny-dipping in the Thames and visiting Windsor castle, showing a vulnerable, private side of Marilyn. In the book, Clark maintains that his relationship with her went as far as a kiss and a friendly grope beneath some blankets, but no further. Monroe was married to playwright Arthur Miller at the time.
The key question, of course (quite apart from how much of this is just trouser-rubbing speculation on the part of the Daily Mail who do rather like to sauce up their stories, especially when they concern celebrities and their offspring), is whether Jagger’s screen acting skills would be up to snuff (apparently he got good notices for a theatrical turn a few years ago but that’s, you know, theatre), considering he will share most of his screen time with Michelle Williams, an actress we pretty much adore and one who is a hotly-tipped early awards contender for her Cannes film with Ryan Gosling “Blue Valentine” (review here). Jagger’s only previous celluloid appearance is fairly far down the billing in “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll,” not a favorite of ours, with a role in “Gangster Kittens” opposite (his mother) Jerry Hall, Julian Glover and Jeroen Krabbe, currently filming. And seeing as the milieu of “Sex & Drugs” mustn’t have proven any great stretch for the son of a Rolling Stone, we have to say that, as a film actor, he’s pretty much untested.
The other big issue here is, of course, the ‘rival’ Marilyn movie – Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde”, that, based on a massive Joyce Carol Oates book, and starring Naomi Watts, at the moment is pipping the Curtis/Williams project at the post, prestige-wise, especially considering that Ralph Fiennes, who would have boosted its profile in a surely-no-one-else-can-play-it role as Laurence Olivier (Monroe’s “Prince” co-star) pulled out to direct “Coriolanus” instead.
Which will be the “Prince of Thieves,” and which will be the Patrick Bergin? Which will be “Capote” and which “Infamous?” Honestly the stories are different enough in scope and scale and focus that we think there might just be room for both of these films. Williams, in London currently for camera tests, insists that her Marilyn will be more interpretation that impersonation, and whether she ends up opposite Jagger or not, we’ll go see it.
Jagger meantime joins a crop of rock star kids with aspiring movie careers, so if this falls through (and again, it’s the Daily Mail so who knows) perhaps he can team up with Lourdes, a Geldof or two and get Duncan Jones (formerly Zowie Bowie) to direct, and we’d have a modern day rival to that ’80s movie whose name we can’t remember that starred all the less-famous brothers of the Brat Pack. Dammit – that idea’s out in the ether now. Me and my big mouth.