Ana De Armas in Blonde playing Marilyn Monroe
(Picture: @ana_d_armas/Instagram)The first trailer featuring Ana de Armas as Marylin Monroe in the forthcoming biopic Blonde has been released.
Directed by Andrew Dominik, who is best known for The Assassination of Jesse James by Coward Robert Ford, the film stars actress Ana de Armas as the tragic star, and is based on the Joyce Carol Oates’ book of the same name, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
The movie has achieved a rare NC-17 rating, which is only afforded to films with extremely graphic content.
Speaking of the film, Dominik said: “There’s something in it to offend everyone”.
He added: “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f****** audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”
The director has also expressed his confusion at the film’s rating, saying: “It’s not like depictions of happy sexuality.”
“It’s depictions of situations that are ambiguous. And Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think? I don’t know why. They make more porn than anyone else in the world.”
The movie’s supporting cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.
The lead role was originally set to be played by Naomi Watts when the project first went into development in 2010, before Jessica Chastin took over, and Ana was finally cast.
Speaking on the role, Cuban actress de Armas has called it the “most intense” work she’s ever done.
She added that it was difficult to perfect Marylin’s accent, saying: “I tried! It only took me nine months of dialect coaching and practising, and some ADR sessions [rerecording dialogue after filming].”
Hollywood was her dream, but fame became her nightmare.
— Netflix (@netflix) June 16, 2022
Ana de Armas is Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, premiering September 23. pic.twitter.com/KkT3MfAu6a
Ana de Armas as Marilyn in Blonde — NEW PHOTOS
— Netflix (@netflix) June 16, 2022
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The official ‘Blonde’ synopsis from Netflix reads: “[The film] boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, ‘Blonde’ blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.”
“Andrew’s ambitions were very clear from the start — to present a version of Marilyn Monroe’s life through her lens,” de Armas recently told Netflix Queue.
“He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”
“We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” de Armas added.
“I read Joyce’s novel, studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, films — anything I could get my hands on. Every scene is inspired by an existing photograph. We’d pore over every detail in the photo and debate what was happening in it.”“The first question was always, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling here?’ We wanted to tell the human side of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible.”
‘Blonde’ is released on Netflix, September 23.
