Ana de Armas names the “most intense” role of her career
Ana de Armas has starred in her fair share of high-profile projects, ranging from the beautiful neo-noir Blade Runner 2049 to the beloved mystery thriller Knives Out. After starring as the latest Bond girl in No Time to Die, she is back again with a career-defining portrayal of the enigmatic Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
Directed by Andrew Dominik, Blonde is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ bestselling novel. A fictionalised interpretation of Monroe’s personal life and her career as a cultural icon, the film has an unconventional approach to the frameworks of the Hollywood biopic. According to de Armas, playing Marilyn Monroe has been the most difficult challenge of her career so far.
In an interview, Ana de Armas said: “It was the most intense work I’ve ever done as an actress. It took me a year to prepare for that — research and accent and everything you can imagine. Reading material, and talking to [director] Andrew Dominik for months, and getting ready to start. It was three months of shooting nonstop — like, a crazy schedule.”
At the time, de Armas had to oscillate between two separate, equally demanding projects. She added: “I was preparing for Blonde, and then the film got pushed, and I got called for No Time to Die. I went to London, and I only had like 10 days to two weeks of training, which is not much for everything I had to do, which made me very nervous.”
When the trailers were released, many users criticised the casting of de Armas due to her heavy accent, which did not match Monroe’s accent at all. However, after the screening of the film, most of the praise has been directed toward de Armas’ powerful performance, which many critics cite as Blonde’s only redeeming quality.
While Joyce Carol Oates lauded Dominik for conducting an “utterly ‘feminist’ interpretation”, others criticised the filmmaker for employing the male gaze to tell Marilyn’s story. Some audience members accused Dominik of reducing the multidimensionality of Marilyn to a Freudian fantasy which defeats the purpose of adapting Oates’ novel.
Despite the negative criticism, Ana de Armas believes in what she has created. She declared: “It’s a very special film, and Andrew’s a genius. He’s one of the best filmmakers I’ve ever worked with.” Although she had to face a lot of backlash due to her accent, de Armas got a 14-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
