Blonde took many elements from Marilyn Monroe’s life to tell a mostly fictional story about the legendary actress – so, was her polyamorous relationship with Charlie Chaplin’s son real or just fiction? Directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde takes a look at the troubled life of Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas), from her volatile childhood as Norma Jean with her mentally unstable mother to her rise to stardom and her romantic entanglements, showing both sides of the legendary artist: her public persona (Marilyn Monroe) and her private self (Norma Jean).
Blonde has received mixed reviews and reactions from critics and viewers, with most criticism going towards Domink’s exploitative and dehumanizing depiction of Monroe, though Armas’ performance has been widely praised. Another heavily criticized aspect of Blonde is its inaccuracy, especially when it comes to Monroe’s romantic relationships, and one that raised many eyebrows was the one she had with Charlie Chaplin’s son, Charles “Cass” Chaplin Jr. (Xavier Samuel), and Eddy Robinson Jr. (Evan Williams). Blonde showed the three of them in a polyamorous relationship, but in reality, there’s no evidence of them being a "throuple".
What Happened Between Marilyn Monroe, Cass Chaplin, & Eddy Robinson Jr?
In Blonde, during the rise of her acting career, Norma Jean meets Cass and Eddy at the LA Actor's Circle in 1952, where she finds them playing the piano. After dancing with Cass, the movie cuts to Norma Jean, Cass, and Eddy at the apartment of the two men, where Cass convinces Norma Jean to undress as their bodies “shouldn’t be hidden away”. The three are then shown in a polyamorous relationship, becoming the subject of tabloids, and Norma Jean eventually gets pregnant with Cass’ child, though she later has an abortion out of fear of her child inheriting her mother’s mental issues.
However, there’s no evidence of a relationship between Marilyn Monroe, Cass Chaplin, and Eddy Robinson Jr., though they all reportedly knew each other. Cass Chaplin claimed in his biography My Father, Charlie Chaplin to have had an affair with Monroe in 1947, but the veracity of this is still questioned, and as for Eddy, he was reportedly a close friend and sometimes lover of Monroe, but Cass wasn’t involved at all – and, of course, they were never industry gossip together.
Why Does Blonde Change Marilyn's Relationships With Cass & Eddy?
One of the biggest problems with Blonde is that it has been wrongly understood as a movie telling the true story of Marilyn Monroe, when in reality, not even the novel it’s based on tells Monroe’s life as it really was. Blonde (the book) is a fictionalized take on Monroe's life, and Oates herself has insisted that it’s fiction and shouldn’t be regarded as a biography. The novel includes the polyamorous relationship between Monroe, Cass, and Eddy as part of its plot, and with the movie being an adaptation of the book and not an actual telling of Monroe’s life, career, and relationships, this questionable “throuple” made it to the movie. Marilyn Monroe might have been friends with the sons of Charlie Chaplin and Edward Robinson, but they weren’t involved in a romantic relationship as seen in Blonde.