Marilyn Monroe’s estate has defended Ana de Armas who is playing the iconic Hollywood star in Netflix’s upcoming biopic Blonde. The official trailer for the flick dropped on July 28th and left a number of viewers up in arms over her accent, which did not match Monroe’s tone.
Marc Rosen, president of entertainment at Authentic Brands Group, which owns the Marilyn Monroe Estate responded to the criticism in a statement to Variety. “Marilyn Monroe is a singular Hollywood and pop culture icon that transcends generations and history. Any actor that steps into that role knows they have big shoes to fill. Based on the trailer alone, it looks like Ana was a great casting choice as she captures Marilyn’s glamour, humanity and vulnerability. We can’t wait to see the film in its entirety!”
Back in 2020, the actress told Vanity Fair that director Andrew Dominik’s decision to cast a Cuban actress was “groundbreaking.”
“I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said ‘It’s you,’ but I had to audition for everyone else. The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe. I wanted it so badly. You see that famous photo of her and she is smiling in the moment, but that’s just a slice of what she was really going through at the time,” de Armas told the magazine.
In an interview with The Times of London, the star explained how she spent almost an entire year perfecting her Monroe accent for Blonde. The actor said, “It took me nine months of dialect coaching, and practising and some ADR sessions [to get the accent right]. It was a big torture, so exhausting. My brain was fried.”
The 34-year-old recently starred in 2022’s Deep Water and started her acting career in her home country of Cuba. Her first leading role came in 2006’s Una rosa de Francia. In 2021 she won Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards for her role in Knives Out.
Blonde releases globally on Netflix on September 28th.
