‘America’s sweetheart’: exhibition explores Marilyn Monroe’s complex relationship to stardom

In this 9 September 1954 file photo, Marilyn Monroe poses over the updraft of a New York subway grate while filming The Seven Year Itch. Photograph: Matty Zimmerman/AP

There’s an unsettling moment in Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon, a new exhibition opening in Los Angeles this weekend, where some of the star’s last recorded words emanate from the gallery walls.

Her voice, gentle and unassuming, is taken from a restored audio recording of her final interview, published in Life magazine the day before she died.