Michelle Williams 'was born to play' Marilyn Monroe

Brokeback Mountain actress Michelle Williams has claimed she was "born to play" Marilyn Monroe.

The 31-year-old actress was talking to Will Lawrence from the Daily Telegraph about her role in the new film 'My Week With Marilyn'.

It depicts Monroe in England filming 'The Prince and the Showgirl' in the last half of 1956 when she didn't see eye-to-eye with her co-star and director Laurence Olivier.

Williams plays the lead while Kenneth Branagh plays Olivier.

The actress told the news provider: "To be honest, the part kind of landed in my lap although I knew immediately that I was going to challenge myself to do it.

"I spent the next six months talking myself out of it - it was daunting - but, in the end, there was a kind of inevitability. It was the kind of part I was born to challenge myself with."

She added that she had a poster of the Hollywood star on her bedroom wall when she was nine years old, which led to her reading biographies about the actress.

Monroe is known for her roles in 'Some Like It Hot', 'Seven Year Itch' and 'The Misfits'.