Ana de Armas

Streetwear brands Culture Kings and Carré drop a new Marilyn Monroe-inspired collection ahead of 'Blonde' release.

[debuted to a massive 14-minute long standing ovation](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/blonde-ana-de-armas-standing-ovation-venice-nc-17-marilyn-monroe-1235337816/) during its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. “The film leaves us with just how haunting it is that where the world saw a goddess, she saw no there there.” The lineup includes t-shirts, dresses and hoodies donning captivating famous images of the blonde icon whose life was famously shrouded in mystery.

There have been several movies that have recounted the life of iconic actor Marilyn Monroe, but it's hard to think of one that seems to be so disrespectful ...

The ones that are most jarring are Monroe's interactions with the men in her life, from husband Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) to President John. But Dominik doesn't even let her enjoy that; instead, this is where the starlet starts to self-destruct. Though that has been a point of contention since the movie's trailer came out, I was completely transfixed on every word she delivered. But despite the movie being top-notch in everything from its production design, costuming, make-up, and cinematography, Dominik doesn't give the movie much of a narrative thread. Dominik leans in heavily on how the early days of celebrity culture and the industry itself ate up Monroe, which is true. If you have little knowledge of her, please do not go into this movie thinking you will find a traditional biopic retelling of her life.

Writer-director Andrew Dominik's (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) immersive and surreal adaption of Joyce Carol Oates' ...

Norma Jeane stays trapped inside the constructed and hyper-sexualized persona of Marilyn Monroe, and she makes many sacrifices she makes to maintain the glamorous facade. [sex symbol](https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-peacocks-cosmic-fairytale-angelyne-explores-fame-fantasy-female-empowerment-so-much-more/) after her, Marilyn Monroe was praised and expected to be the ultimate male fantasy and then was punished for it. This role required her to show a lot of vulnerability (so much crying) and expose herself literally and metaphorically. [a single scene](https://youtu.be/VnI2MyS6fgo). We also see interpretations of her real relationships like her marriage to the jealous and abusive Joe DiMaggio, nicknamed “the Ex-Athlete” (Bobby Cannavale), and the more tender union with Arthur Miller, aka “the Playwright” (Adrien Brody). Marilyn’s life is defined by the string of toxic relationships and indignities she experienced, the first of which is being subjected to her mother’s mental instability and abuse. The film’s strongest element is Ana de Armas, who was clearly very committed to the mentally and physically demanding role. We skip ahead to adulthood when Norma Jeane is now Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas), a blonde bombshell on the rise with a genuine interest in acting that no one takes seriously. Her lifetime of trauma keeps her in a childlike state, an unwanted orphan desperately looking for her father and settling for someone she can call “Daddy.” She’s repeatedly told to be a “good girl” in various situations: from walking into an orphanage to fellating John F. Writer-director Andrew Dominik’s (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) immersive and surreal adaption of Joyce Carol Oates’ imaginative novel of the same name is a lot to take in. Norma goes from being in the care of a friendly neighbor to being dropped off at an orphanage. But no one is allowed to say his name because he’s a big name in the industry.

Blonde is uplifted by a passionate performance by Ana de Armas, but it isn't interested in Norma Jeane so much as it is in her pain and suffering.

It’s a film that takes pleasure in Monroe’s pain, indulging in it for too-long periods of time, uninterested in actually pulling back the curtain to study anything more about her. It’s intriguing and compelling, to be sure, and it’s a shame the film is never willing to go beyond the surface. Dominik’s film insists that Norma Jeane’s bad experiences with men is linked to having grown up with an absent father. The film includes her second and third marriages to Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale, as the Ex-Athlete) and playwright Time away from the spotlight, meanwhile, showcases Norma Jeane at her most vulnerable emotionally, as audiences witness the numerous traumas she experienced. And while Blonde is uplifted by a passionate performance by Ana de Armas, it isn’t interested in the life of Norma Jeane Mortensen so much as it is in the pain and suffering she faced.

The highly anticipated film by Andrew Dominick is based on Joyce Carol Oates's 2000 novel of the same name and explores the troubled star's identities of her ...

"I tried several foundations to try to replicate Marilyn's glow, but this one was very reflective, so it would bounce the light back and give that sort of period's look, but also that sheen that she had on her face," the makeup artist shares. And certainly we went to Guerlain because that was one of the companies Marilyn used." "We tried several different ones and the black was too black," Kerwin says. "This was a game-changer for this part of her look, so I was really grateful to have found it." Kerwin says she tried a "truckload" of lipsticks to find the perfect shades that not only embodied Monroe, but also worked with the film's color and black-and-white lighting. Once the wigs were set with wet rollers, McIntosh would "brush it out so it was looser and messier, and [would] spritz it down with a little water" to match the reference images for the scenes. "I don't think there's a lip company that we didn't put through the ringer trying to figure it out. "When we were doing research for the wigs, we had to consider Marilyn's hair texture," McIntosh says. "As soon as she put the wig on, we knew we had to change her eyebrows," Kerwin shares. "Because of the fine detail and the lightness of the hairline on those wigs, there was just no other way to hide Ana's dark hair, McIntosh says. "We just had to completely erase Ana's hairline and the depth that was under there." However, it was vital that the hair and makeup didn't read as de Armas wearing a Monroe costume.

Blonde review: the Netflix film starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, tells a brutally tragic fictionalized version of the screen legend's story.

As for the direction, Blonde does little to hide that it is trying to be an art film with a capital "A". At the very least, you have to sit with the movie for a while before you can fully weigh how it all fits together. Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Maisel, Saturday Night Live, Only Murders in the Building and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. You have to believe that a director as talented as Dominik has a reason for all of these decisions, but whatever their designated purpose in serving the story is, it can be hard to decipher for the average viewer. This may be an instance where streaming on Netflix — where subscribers tend to try new things compared to theater-goers paying $15 for a single movie ticket — is an advantage. For instance, while the movie is gorgeously shot, the switching between black and white and color feels rudderless; neither is directly associated with Marilyn or Norma Jean or helps signal happy vs sad moments in her life. [the novel by Joyce Carol Oates](https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=110014&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FBlonde-Joyce-Carol-Oates%2Fdp%2F1841153729%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dwhattowatch-us-1524203756607211500-20) (opens in new tab) and is upfront about being a purely fictionalized version of the life of Marilyn Monroe. Here the iconic blonde bombshell is brought to the screen in a searing performance by Ana de Armas. (Evan Williams), as well as her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody). From the voice to the look, she is utterly convincing as the screen legend. The movie also depicts abuse in her relationship with Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and President John F.

Rooted in reality, Blonde wallows in the most tragic aspects of Marilyn Monroe's life—but plenty of what occurs in the film starring Ana de Armas didn't ...

[Bobby Cannavale](https://www.eonline.com/news/bobby_cannavale)) some compromising photos of her, after which he returns home and smacks her in the face. But the set issues were real, and the star had a miscarriage toward the end of filming. Monroe informed the woman calling that she had never met the man in question and he was free to contact her lawyer. Real life: Norma and her mother lived with Albert and Ida Bolender, the couple who took her in as an infant, for almost seven years, which allowed Baker the freedom to be able to work and save some money. When she gets pregnant again during her marriage to Miller, her guilt manifests in a heartbreaking conversation she has with her fetus. The child runs to the neighbors' apartment, her mother is taken away to a mental hospital, and Norma is soon dropped off at an orphanage. That relationship was over by Christmas, and the following June, Baker placed her days-old daughter in the care of neighbors and returned to work. In early 1962, Monroe got a call from a nurse who told her that her father had suffered a heart attack and really wanted to see her. (Mortensen and Baker divorced in 1928 and he died in a car crash the following year.) When Monroe came back to the car, Skolsky recalled, she told him her "son-of-a-bitch" father had said to her, "Listen, Marilyn, I'm married, I have children. She's grappling with, and we're grappling with, the image of her life." Finding out that one of her so-called best friends was sending the letters all along is a final blow as her life skids to its premature end on Aug.

"Blonde" Makeup and hair crew on how they transformed Ana de Armas into Marilyn Monroe.

“The gray is painted into their hair to make them more distinguished.” She adds, “There are silvery streaks painted in, and when you look at the original, you think, ‘Why would they do that?’ So we had to copy that.” In recreating “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Kerwin mixed a fuchsia lip with red. Says Kerwin, “We needed something sturdy that could hold up with the gluing and ungluing of wigs.” “It changed the eye shape,” Kerwin explains. It gave us a chance to figure out what worked better in black and white as opposed to color,” explains Kerwin. The shoot session was done before principal filming began, and it helped immensely since they would have to recreate many of Monroe’s most iconic moments.

Ana de Armas completely transforms into Marilyn Monroe in the film 'Blonde.' The hair, makeup, and costume departments tell ELLE.com how it was done.

Even with all the costume changes, Johnson says it felt like de Armas wore those vintage check pants daily, and since there was only one pair, she “was praying they were not going to dissolve.” The authentic 1950s garment from [Palace Costume](https://www.palacecostume.com/history) “fit like a glove.” “I have photographs of her that day at the Plan B office, and there’s Marilyn,” she says. Kerwin provided the additional makeup artists with lip palettes they had made to deliver a consistent visual: “We had put in all the orange reds, they had all the blue reds, and so when the background came in, we had mapped out what was going to work for color or black and white.” That is the most important thing to get there and not just stick a costume on her.” One area Johnson decided to ditch early on was padded foundation garments. Gowns, furs, and glamorous on-set ensembles are a fraction of the costume story being told in Blonde, which has a “sense of naturalism” that Johnson notes is the focus of the novel and Dominik’s direction. “They had her on the monitor, and the actual footage [from Some Like It Hot] on the monitor next to it,” McIntosh recalls. The two formats impact the choice of makeup, and the “biggest thing to figure out was the lip colors” because some pop, whereas others fade away. A couple of days of testing was required to “find out what worked, what didn’t and to find our Marilyn in Ana,” says Kerwin about her expressive lashes. During production, they were shaved down by Kerwin and then bleached every couple of days, which took some getting used to [for the star](https://youtu.be/BOa89RpMYf0?t=221): “Ana has beautiful brows, and it was a shock for her to see herself in the newly thinned out blonde brow.” Western Costume cobbler Mauricio Osorio came up with a workaround that required excellent quality shoes to use as a foundation that “Ana loves, are comfortable, and have the correct shape and height.” Johnson turned to The RealReal to get a pair of Manolo Blahniks that are “still quite expensive but saved us from having to make the shoe from the ground up.” The guts of the shoe are still Manolos: “He basically rips the whole shoe apart, takes the top off, and rips the leather off the heel. Using prosthetics instead of a bald cap “so we could see scalp through the wigs.” Kerwin explains that after applying the prosthetic pieces, “it was all airbrushed to be the same color, and then the blonde wigs would sit on what was looking like skin.” It is here that Monroe’s hair was dyed its famous shade (ditto Lucille Ball’s signature hue) and this snapshot of Tinseltown was the first stop on “Team Marilyn’s train.” As well as recreating images, Dominik also shot on location at Monroe’s famous haunts, including Musso and Frank’s and the house she shared with Arthur Miller.

Andrew Dominik adapts Joyce Carol Oates' novel, Blonde, for the big screen, telling a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe's life, from her troubled ...

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Andrew Dominik's adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel is a morbid, leering and tasteless abasement.

This goes double during a scene when Monroe is filming the subway-grate shot in “The Seven Year Itch,” during which his camera lingers and leers with unsavory insistence. There are short clips of her work in such classics as “All About Eve,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Some Like It Hot,” but Dominik never allows de Armas to convey her character’s exquisite comic timing, superb physical grace or shrewdness. She certainly deserves more than a dumb “Blonde.” That scene ends with a rape that can’t help but conjure images of Harvey Weinstein and the “casting couch” tradition he so brutally perpetuated. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson), who features in one of the film’s many tasteless scenes, in this case of Monroe performing oral sex while he watches a rocket launch on TV. The rest of “Blonde” continues apace, with Monroe encountering creepy, dismissive or outright violent men who continually underestimate and betray her.

Transforming Ana de Armas into Marilyn Monroe for Netflix's new biopic Blonde was a team effort. Here's how Tina Roesler Kerwin, Jennifer Johnson, ...

There’s a humor and a whims whimsy to his costumes and a lightness to the spirit of his designs. We were trying to figure out how William Travilla made that moment work in a column dress with a big bow on the back and we learned that when he was working on the dress, he borrowed pool table fabric from the art department at Fox Studios next door. He got a bolt of green felt and backed the dress with that. I actually haven't seen the dress since we made the film in 2019 and I would love to look at it again because I think that it's probably a bit garish in person. Also wearing pants was really important in the movie, so your gaze would be taken away from her body and would be really placed on her interior—on her mental workings, on her intellect, on her psychological state. So I was able to push it a little bit further than Tina was because I didn't have those restrictions." Jamie-Leigh would also help sell some of the more casual looks with the movement and the wave of the hair." Finding that shape, that texture and that hairstyle was a challenge." You still want it to have the hold and the style without losing the softness, so it can look touchable." But overall, very little product because the more product that's in the hair, the more it can tend to start looking helmet-y and not move naturally. The blonde wig did not work on Ana’s hair so I had to put three prosthetic pieces underneath the wigs to give her a half bald cap so that the blonde wigs looked like they were actually sitting on skin. There are so many different Marilyns, so we needed to find a baseline, an image that you see most of her.

If you're wondering how faithful 'Blonde' director Andrew Dominik is to Joyce Carol Oates' novel, the answer is somewhere between 'quite' and 'very.'

(The novel even goes out of its way to erroneously claim that she “never received any award for her acting in the United States.”) Instead he showed her full of life and joy as she sneaks into a movie theater to see her own movie, glancing at the audience who doesn’t recognize her and smiling every time they laugh. (“Marilyn Monroe’ is this foam-rubber sex doll I’m supposed to be, they want to use her until she wears out; then they’ll toss her in the trash.”) Yes, you read that right — there are indeed several scenes in which Monroe talks to her unborn child and the CGI fetus talks back, one of many apparent attempts at intimacy that instead feel ghoulish (not least because the fetus at one point asks “Why did you kill me last time?”) It’s near-constant in the novel, to the point where you can’t help wishing Oates would stop hammering home this aspect of Monroe’s relationships and move on to another point; a search of the Kindle version turns up 170 instances of “daddy,” the vast majority of which are in the same context as lines like page 593’s “Ohhh, Daddy. [Andrew Dominik](https://variety.com/t/andrew-dominik/) and starring [Ana de Armas](https://variety.com/t/ana-de-armas/) as Monroe (née Norma Jeane Baker), “Blonde” is one of those movies that generates headlines, elicits controversy and inspires hot takes long before anyone has seen a single frame.

Costume designer Jennifer Johnson explains how her team re-created Marilyn Monroe's wardrobe for Ana de Armas's costumes in Netflix's Blonde.

"It's easy enough to copy something verbatim, it's another thing to bring something so iconic that is imbued in the world's psyche back from the dead. But she made an exception for diamonds, as all of Monroe's jewelry was real. In terms of her style point of view, Monroe was a minimalist. Award-winning costume designer [Jennifer Johnson](http://www.jenniferjohnsoncostume.com/) ("I, Tonya") re-created Monroe's iconic outfits with the help of patternmaker Jose Bello at [Western Costume](https://www.westerncostume.com/). "Getting the construction details just right was important, but so was being flexible with certain details and fabric choices to work for Ana," Johnson tells POPSUGAR. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.

The fictional biopic of Marilyn Monroe has steadily accumulated its fair share of controversy--and now you can see for yourself what the buzz has been ...

She also recently discussed the future of the James Bond series, saying [Bond should not be played by a woman](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-is-no-need-for-female-bond-ana-de-armas-says/1100-6505704/). [Empire](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/marilyn-monroe-movie-blonde-create-controversy-says-ana-de-armas-exclusive/) over the summer, "It's a film that is supposed to create controversy and discomfort." "It's supposed to make you think about what happened--and what is still happening," de Armas said. It tells the story of how a woman, Norma Jeane Baker, became the incredibly popular celebrity Marilyn Monroe in the '50s and '60s. The movie is not a traditional biopic however, as it blurs the lines between fact and fiction, Netflix said. Netflix's Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde, which stars Ana de Armas in the lead role, is now available to stream.

Ana de Armas' performance in "Blonde" could get an Oscar nomination for best actress, and be the only Latino representation in the race, if it can survive ...

[ADAPTED SCREENPLAY](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-adapted-screenplay-predictions-1235327856) [ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-original-screenplay-predictions-1235327855) [SUPPORTING ACTRESS](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-supporting-actress-predictions-1235327853/) [SUPPORTING ACTOR](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-supporting-actor-predictions-1235327852) Billie Holiday” (2021) and Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger for “Judy” (2019). [Netflix](https://variety.com/t/netflix/) may throw its full weight behind De Armas, who has emerged as the streamer‘s leading contender for major acting attention.

The brand new Netflix movie 'Blonde' stars Ana de Armas and features some very explicit, NSFW scenes. The film is directed by Andrew Dominik...

I knew exactly what was going to be seen, what was not going to be seen, and it felt like it was the right thing to do”. It was just a part of a whole story…I knew exactly what the shot was going to be. “I understood what I was doing and I felt very protected and safe,” she told the publication, adding, “I didn’t feel exploited because I was in control.

Adapted from Joyce Carol Oates' novel about the Hollywood icon by writer-director Andrew Dominik ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert ...

Still, "Blonde" is almost wholly de Armas' show, and to the extent it's worth sitting through at all give her every ounce of credit. De Armas and the staggering hair/makeup/costume work present those moments so uncannily (occasionally mixed with footage of Monroe's co-stars) that you have to blink to make sure it's not the real thing. It's not a fresh take or a wrong one, but the tone is so self-conscious and surreal as to blunt those insights.

Blonde star Ana de Armas spent two and a half hours in hair and makeup each day to play famed Hollywood actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe.

The movie has been the subject of much interest in the months leading up to its release due to de Armas' popularity, the well-known figure at its center, and the much-discussed NC-17 rating. [Variety](https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/ana-de-armas-transformation-marilyn-monroe-blonde-movie-1235377281/), detailing how they transformed de Armas for the film, which took two and a half hours each day. Since breaking out in the much-adored mystery Knives Out in 2019, de Armas has evolved into a bona fide star.

Ana de Armas mesmerizes as the tortured icon in 'Blonde,' a relentless telling of Marilyn Monroe's life that will challenge viewers.

This is a horror film of sorts and like a horror film, this is about what viewers will tolerate. Adding to the length is the loose narrative. Is it fair to the source material? As tough as it is to watch, so much worked for me in this film. Perhaps the simple solution to present the film’s ideas was to base it on a fully fictional character that only reminds viewers of Monroe – even if that would defeat the director’s intentions. That is why this film is not a failure. From a technical standpoint the film is very strong. This is a situation where the gaze of a female director (even in an advisory role) could have benefited the film as a whole. It is surprisingly effective, injecting creepy, surreal, and unsettling moments that alter the interpretation on what would otherwise be considered glamorous. With that said, I have a hard time believing that the same person buying the Marilyn Monroe Funko Pop figurine and Christmas ornaments is (or ever will be) ready for what is delivered on screen. While de Armas’ work in the film is so mesmerizing it begs you not to look away, the film’s graphic content seems to hold Marilyn Monroe, the viewers, and even the actress captive. I only learned post viewing that this film not only blurs the line between fiction and fact, it often erases it, leaving viewers to fend for themselves when determining what your takeaway will be.

Ana de Armas absolutely shines in her role as Marilyn Monroe in new Netflix film, Blonde. Have you ever wondered how much the actress is worth?

The 34-year-old Cuban and Spanish actress began her career in Cuba. If you haven’t watched the film yet, I really recommend it just so you can see how amazing de Armas is in the role. The talented actress has embodied her so well, she deserves all the praise!

Ana de Armas has starred in her fair share of high-profile projects, ranging from the neo-noir 'Blade Runner 2049' to the beloved mystery thriller 'Knives ...

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. According to de Armas, playing Marilyn Monroe has been the most difficult challenge of her career so far. 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.