26 Things We Learned About Marilyn Monroe From Her Final Interview

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, the Los Angeles native lived quite a troubled life from birth. While growing up, Norma bounced around between nearly a dozen different sets of foster parents and orphanages, as her mother was in and out of various asylums. But a rocky childhood didn't stop her from achieving her dreams of being a Hollywood star.

In 1952, Marilyn met Yankees star Joe DiMaggio and sparks immediately flew. They wanted to keep a low profile, and spent a lot of time at home. The stars reportedly didn't want a public wedding, but their 1954 ceremony at San Francisco City Hall was leaked to the press, causing massive crowds to gather.

The honeymoon phase didn't last long for Marilyn and Joe—the athlete reportedly had an issue with her hectic work schedule and sexy image. Despite divorcing less than a year after their wedding, love still remained between them. After her passing, Joe sent roses to Marilyn's grave multiple times a week until his own death in 1999. He was her second husband—the first was police officer James Dougherty and the third was playwright Arthur Miller.

In 1962, the starlet purchased the only home she ever owned: A 2,079-square-foot Brentwood home for $75,000. Just four months later, she was found dead inside, changing the course of Hollywood forever. Now, let's dive into the star's final interview and what she learned throughout her fame-filled life.

"When you're famous, you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who is she who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any kind of nature and it won't hurt your feelings."

"Sometimes wearing a scarf and a polo coat and no makeup and with a certain attitude of walking, I go shopping or just look at people living. But then you know, there will be a few teenagers who are kind of sharp and they'll say, 'Hey, just a minute. You know who I think that is?' And they'll start tailing me."

"And I don't mind," she added. "I realize some people want to see if you're real. To me, it's an honor, and I love them for it. You know, those are times it's nice. People knowing who you are and all of that, and feeling that you've meant something to them."

"I don't like to say this, but I'm afraid there is a lot of envy in this business. The only thing I can do is stop and think, 'I'm alright, but I'm not so sure about them!' For instance, you've read there was some actor that once said that kissing me was like kissing Hitler. Well, I think that's his problem. If I have to do intimate love scenes with somebody who really has these kinds of feelings toward me, then my fantasy can come into play. In other words, out with him, in with my fantasy. He was never there."

"I'll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it's disappointing. These are the ones you aren't interested in seeing every day of your life."

"Of course, it does depend on the people, but sometimes I'm invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who'll play the piano after dinner, and I know you're not really invited for yourself. You're just an ornament."

"I never quite understood it, this sex symbol. I always thought symbols were those things you clash together! That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something I'd rather have it sex than some other things they've got symbols of!"

"When I was five I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn't like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house."

"Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either."

"I've always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, 'Hi,' that the people ought to get their money's worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me."

"Let's take some actors or directors. Usually, they don't say it to me, they say it to the newspapers because that's a bigger play. You know, if they're only insulting me to my face that doesn't make a big enough play because all I have to say is, 'See you around, like never.' But if it's in the newspapers, it's coast-to-coast and all around the world. I don't understand why people aren't a little more generous with each other."

"I remember when I got the part in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Jane Russell — she was the brunette in it and I was the blonde. She got $200,000 for it, and I got my $500 a week, but that to me was, you know, considerable. She, by the way, was quite wonderful to me. The only thing was I couldn't get a dressing room. Finally, I really got to this kind of level and I said, 'Look, after all, I am the blonde, and it is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes!' Because still they always kept saying, 'Remember, you're not a star.' I said, 'Well, whatever I am, I am the blonde!' And I want to say to the people, if I am a star, the people made me a star. No studio, no person, but the people did."

"Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, 'One tear, right now,' that one tear would pop out. But once there came two tears because I thought, 'How dare he?' But everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like sort of a chunk of you. But I'm there to give a performance and not to be disciplined by a studio! After all, I'm not in a military school."

"When [fans] rushed toward me I looked behind me to see who was there and I said, 'My heavens!' I was scared to death. I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don't know who or what, maybe myself."

"I used to tell them, for instance, that I worked for five cents a month and I washed one hundred dishes, and my stepkids would say, 'One hundred dishes!' and I said, 'Not only that, I scraped and cleaned them before I washed them.' I washed them and rinsed them and put them in the draining place, but I said, 'Thank God I didn't have to dry them.'"

"When I was older, I used to go to Grauman's Chinese Theatre and try to fit my foot in the prints in the cement there. And I'd say, 'Oh, oh, my foot's too big! I guess that's out.' I did have a funny feeling later when I finally put my foot down into that wet cement. I sure knew what it really meant to me. Anything's possible, almost."