Ana de Armas has revealed the kind gesture she did before playing Marilyn Monroe in the Netflix film Blonde.
The Cuban star, who portrays the iconic Hollywood actor and fashion icon in Andrew Dominik’s controversial film, said she visited Monroe’s grave to ask for ‘permission’ to play her.
The 34-year-old shared why she and the crew felt compelled to leave a message at Monroe’s grave in AnOther magazine’s cover story interview. “We got this big card, and everyone in the crew wrote a message to her,” she revealed.
“Then we went to the cemetery and put it on her grave. We were asking for permission in a way.
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“Everyone felt a huge responsibility, and we were very aware of the side of the story we were going to tell – the story of Norma Jeane, the person behind this character, Marilyn Monroe. Who was she really?”
Adapted from the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates and shot in black and white, Blonde is a fictionalised take on the life of Monroe.
The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 8 September and began a limited release in US cinemas from 16 September.
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Blonde – which gained notoriety and interest for being the first NC-17 film to be released on a streaming service – has received mixed views, with some praise for de Armas’ performance.
The most common reason that films are awarded the NC-17 rating by the MPAA is for containing 'explicit sexual content' and 'pervasive sexuality and graphic sexual dialogue'.
Critics who have watched the film have described graphic scenes of Monroe experiencing a miscarriage.
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Meanwhile, some fans of Monroe are worried that audiences are going to get the wrong impression of the late actor if they go into it, mistakenly thinking it's a factual account of her life rather than a fictional reimagining of her life.
The Knives Out and No Time to Die star clarified that she did not practice method acting and reverted back to being de Armas between takes.
“Don’t get me wrong, I had so much fun,” she said. “I wasn’t by any means in character for nine weeks, not between takes, not in my lunch break. I was Ana. But emotionally? The weight of it stayed with me for sure”.
She added: “There was no way to unplug because I’d get home and study for the next day and then Andrew was on the phone until midnight”.
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Blonde is scheduled to be released on Netflix on 28 September.
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Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Ana de Armas