Following supporting roles in the likes of No Time To Die, Knives Out and Deep Water, Cuban actress Ana de Armas will finally be the leading lady in an upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde. The film is directed by Andrew Dominik and has reportedly been in development since 2010. Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts have been linked to the movie in the past before de Armas was officially cast in 2019.
What is it rated?
Bits and pieces have been revealed about the film across the years while this week we received further insight into exactly what we can expect from the forthcoming project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film which is adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name was rated NC-17 this month. For Australian readers playing along at home, this is essentially an R18+ rating.
Dominik had foreseen this of course. In a February interview with Screen Daily, he explained, “It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.”
The director had also insisted that editor Jennifer Lame (who famously worked on Tenet) to “to curb the excesses of the movie,” which also features a rape scene derived from Oates’ book.
who else is in the cast?
Joining de Armas is Sara Paxton who will play Miss Flynn, Evan Williams as Eddy, Adrien Brody as ‘The Playwright’ aka Arthur Miller, as well as Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio and Julianne Nicholson who will portray Gladys. Brad Pitt is reportedly producing the film alongside Dominik.
do we have a first look?
At this time we don’t have much to go on except a couple of paparazzi pictures, but in March 2021, de Armas had discussed the not-so-glamorous transformation in an interview with Byrdie.
“I had to go bald every day, because with the blonde wigs… [Marilyn] went through different shades of blonde from golden to really platinum, so for these wigs that are beautifully made, you can’t have anything dark underneath, so we had to make a bald cap every single day from my forehead to [around] my whole head,” she explained to the publication.
“It was like, three and a half hours every day of makeup. I think I actually cried the first time I saw [the wigs] on. Probably because I was terrified,” she continued. “But, I’m so proud.”
how can we watch it?
Blonde will be housed by streaming giant, Netflix. It was rumoured that the film could be released in May for the highly-anticipated Cannes Film Festival however the premiere is believed to have been pushed back.
More to come.
