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Gretchen Mol As Notorious Pin-Up Girl

Bettie Page was a pin-up sensation with an unlikely past. She grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee before becoming an erotic icon with legions of devoted fans. Her provocative poses eventually drew the attention of a Senate investigation into pornography in the 1950s.

Her story is the subject of a new movie, "The Notorious Bettie Page," and the title role is played by Gretchen Mol, a transformation that required turning Mol's soft, blonde looks into a raven-haired vixen.

"That's that movie magic where there was such a great team of people with the wig, and the hair and makeup," she told co-anchor Harry Smith during a visit to The Early Show. "It was so transformative. And it helped me so much in finding the character because as soon as I put the wig on, I didn't see myself. So I was able to kind of do the things that Bettie did."

Part of Page's distinctive character in front of the camera was her lack of shame and inhibition, a quality Mol worked hard to recreate.

"That's the interesting thing about her story, is that she always retained this sort of innocence, and love of life, and sort of carefree quality in her posing," she said. "And I knew going into it that that was one thing that I had to hit, if I hit anything at all, was that lack of self-consciousness that she had when she was posing."

The movie tells how Page's life switched to an unexpected path after she was turned down for a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University, after cutting an art class.

"That was one of her biggest disappointments that she didn't get that scholarship," Mol told Smith. "As a woman in the '50s ... that's such a seminal moment in her life that kind of put it on this other journey. Something totally different could have happened there."

The movie shows Page eventually returning to her religion, but Mol says she did not seem to be tormented by guilt over her choices.

"One of the things I love about Bettie Page is that I don't think she was ever really ashamed of the … posing," she said. "I don't think she thought she was doing anything wrong. It was sort of, you know, what's the harm in it? If it's not hurting anybody, who am I to sit in judgment. I totally, you know, get behind that philosophy."

"The Notorious Bettie Page" opens April 14.

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