From The Hollywood Reporter: Susan Sarandon is continuing her push into TV. The Academy Award winner has been tapped to co-star in Lifetime’s Marilyn Monroe miniseries, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
In Marilyn, a four-hour miniseries based on J. Randy Taraborrelli’s book, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, Sarandon will portray the blonde bombshell’s mentally ill mother, Gladys Mortenson. The character is described as a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, who is the product of a mother who committed suicide as a result of her own mental illness, and a father who died of syphilitic insanity. Frequently delusional, sometimes violent, Gladys sexually adventurous in her youth but taught her daughter that sex should be avoided at all costs. Deeply devoted to Christian Science, she urges Marilyn to reject her reliance on drugs and that her salvation will be achieved by returning to the tenets of the faith. (The role of Monroe has not yet been cast.)