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Daily Inspiration Quote by Tony Randall

"Marilyn Monroe was no fun to work with. She would report to work around 5:00 in the evening. You've been in make-up since 8:30 in the morning waiting for her"

About this Quote

Randall’s complaint lands because it punctures the gauzy Monroe myth with a single production-floor detail: call time. No psychoanalysis, no velvet tragedy - just the grinding arithmetic of a film set where everyone else has been “in make-up since 8:30” burning hours for a star who floats in at five. The intent is plainly practical (she made the work miserable), but the subtext is status: Monroe’s lateness isn’t just inconsiderate, it’s a reminder of the hierarchy that governs Hollywood labor. Time becomes the currency of power, and Monroe is cashing everyone else’s.

As an actor and company man, Randall is also defending an ethic. Old-school professionalism prized punctuality because it signaled respect for the crew’s invisible craftsmanship. His phrasing makes the crew the protagonists: you, plural, stuck in a chair, ready for a scene that can’t happen. That “you’ve been” is a quiet enlistment of the reader onto the side of the workers who keep the machine running.

Context matters, too. Monroe’s chronic lateness and on-set struggles have long been folded into a narrative of fragility and exploitation; Randall’s line refuses the romance. It’s not tender, it’s weary. That weariness is cultural commentary in miniature: Hollywood adores its icons, then resents the real human beings required to sustain the iconography. By naming Monroe as “no fun,” Randall isn’t merely gossiping - he’s insisting that charisma doesn’t erase the costs it imposes on the people waiting under the lights.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Randall, Tony. (2026, January 15). Marilyn Monroe was no fun to work with. She would report to work around 5:00 in the evening. You've been in make-up since 8:30 in the morning waiting for her. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/marilyn-monroe-was-no-fun-to-work-with-she-would-102726/

Chicago Style
Randall, Tony. "Marilyn Monroe was no fun to work with. She would report to work around 5:00 in the evening. You've been in make-up since 8:30 in the morning waiting for her." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/marilyn-monroe-was-no-fun-to-work-with-she-would-102726/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Marilyn Monroe was no fun to work with. She would report to work around 5:00 in the evening. You've been in make-up since 8:30 in the morning waiting for her." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/marilyn-monroe-was-no-fun-to-work-with-she-would-102726/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Tony Randall on Marilyn Monroe on-set lateness
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Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 - May 17, 2004) was a Actor from USA.

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