Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most iconic movie stars in history, 50 years after her death. But is Lindsay Lohan on a track that will bring her to that level? According to The Canyons director Paul Schrader, the two are more alike than many think.
In a story titled “Shooting Stars” for Film Comment, the Taxi Driver writer said that before he began directing The Canyons, he read The Making of The Misfits, about how Monroe’s final film was put together as her marriage to Arthur Miller crumbled. “I was struck by the similarities between Marilyn Monroe and the actress I was working with, Lindsay Lohan,” he notes. Schrader adds that he’s not the only one who sees similarities, since Stephen Rodrick’s infamous New York Times Magazine piece was titled “The Misfits” in print.
“Similarities? Tardiness, unpredictability, tantrums, absences, neediness, psychodrama—yes, all that, but something more, that thing that keeps you watching someone on screen, that thing you can’t take your eyes off of, that magic, that mystery,” Schrader notes. “That thing that made John Huston say, I wonder why I put myself through all this, then I go to dailies.”
Schrader noted that what keeps actors like Monroe and Lohan entertaining is that they have no control of the “balance between the professional and personal, that is, he or she makes it seem like the professional is personal.”
But Schrader does note that they are not one in the same and that the two are products of their time. Monroe was around during the old Hollywood studio system, while Lohan exists in a reality where “it’s possible to become a star without being taken seriously, to be a ‘media personality.’”
“A director can shoot around misbehavior. He can’t shoot around lack of charisma,” Shrader concludes. “I just wish it was easier for Lindsay.”
The Canyons was written by Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) and will hit theaters in limited release on Aug. 2. Lohan’s co-stars include porn star James Deen and Nolan Gerard Funk.
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