couple of months if I want to stay in the game. I had no idea!” This year, she says, has been unusually productive. Marilyn marks the first time that Collyer is directing a film she didn’t write. That it’s about Marilyn Monroe, who is arguably the most recognizable actress of all time, makes it that much more of a challenge. “I have to say, I’ve really fallen in love with her,” she says of Monroe. “I knew I was in love with her when I developed my own conspiracy theories about how she died. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a convert.’” And while Monroe is remembered mostly as an international sex symbol, says Collyer, her life was far more complicated—and tragic—than most people realize. “A lot of the characters I’ve written have similar backgrounds to Marilyn, including the kids from Nuyorican Dream,” she says. “All Marilyn had was herself. It’s a different way of moving through the world when no one takes care of you.” Monroe was born in a charity ward and her mother institutionalized when she was a small child. She lived in an orphanage for two years, was boarded out to people for $5 dollars a week, never knew who her father was, and battled addiction until her death in 1962 at age 36. “I never knew that she’d had that kind of a childhood. That’s really what I’m interested in—how that manifests into her strengths and weaknesses,” Collyer says. “I never knew that she came from such disadvantage. It wasn’t a secret, but I think that over time that part of her story went away, and now she’s an icon of sexuality and glamour.” Instead of focusing on how young Monroe was when she died, Collyer says, “we should really take note of how long she lived. Not only how long, but how she lived, and how much success she had in her career.” When asked if she ever secretly dreams of making a lighthearted romantic comedy, Collyer chuckles. “Yes, actually! I want to tell a love story. I think a sex comedy would be really fun. It’s interesting to me—how human sexuality has been put in these boxes that are often artificial enclosures for us, and what we really desire. We’ll see.” No matter the subject matter, Collyer says, the act of telling a story through filmmaking is itself “an act of hope. It’s an act of faith and commitment and seeing a future.” n ELIZABETH WEINSTEIN ’02 IS A FREELANCE WRITER LIVING IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. HER ARTICLES HAVE APPEARED IN ROLLINGSTONE.COM, BILLBOARD.BIZ, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, COLUMBUS ALIVE, THE CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS, OHIO MAGAZINE, BELT, AND MORE. OBERLIN ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2015 / SPRING 17