Michelle Williams Wows as Marilyn Monroe in Vogue [PHOTOS]

Heath Ledger Marilyn Monroe Michelle Williams My Week with Marilyn The Prince and the Showgirl Vogue

10:57 am, September 13th, 2011

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PHOTOS

Michelle Williams is transformed into Marilyn Monroe on the October cover of Vogue, in which she discusses her new movie, My Week with Marilyn.

Williams reveals she was incredibly daunted by playing such an iconic figure in the film, which centers around Monroe’s time shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, but says, “As soon as I finished the script, I knew that I wanted to do it.”

To prepare for the role, the  Williams spent six months immersing herself in all things Monroe.

“I’d go to bed every night with a stack of books next to me,” she says. “And I’d fall asleep to movies of her. It was like when you were a kid and you’d put a book under your pillow hoping you’d get it by osmosis.”

The private star also opens up about how she and her six-year-old daughter Matilda slowly overcame the grief of Heath Ledger‘s death, saying, “Three years ago, it felt like we didn’t have anything, and now my life — our life — has kind of repaired itself.”

But despite time’s healing, Ledger’s passing has fundamentally changed the way Williams looks at life.

“[His death] changed how I see the world and how I interact on a daily basis,” she explains. “It’s changed the parent I am… It’s changed the kind of work that I really want to do. It’s become the lens through which I see life — that it’s all impermanent.”

The magazine hits newsstands on September 20.

Check out the stunning photos below.

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