Andrew Dominick controversy BlondeThe film, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oate, falls somewhere between a biopic and a cautionary tale about fame, starring the most famous woman of the 20th century. It was Ana de Armas who was tasked with portraying Marilyn Monroe, one of the most desirable and complex figures in Hollywood. The actress drew a lot of ire from fans with her performance, thanks in large part to Dominique’s creative choices to include gratuitous scenes of sexual violence and abortion.
Although critics were quick to dismiss Blonde While largely fictional trauma porn, de Armas’ performance was entirely convincing, likely because she shared the same stage fright as Monroe. While Monroe became the role of Norma Jeane, de Armas had to play Jean “playing” Monroe in a dizzying feat of depersonalization.
“I experienced a lot of fear and uncertainty,” de Armas said. OtherMage. “I felt in a very vulnerable position. Not just in specific difficult scenes, but the whole process was overwhelming for me. Most of the time I thought I was doing it wrong. I thought, what do these American actors think of me? They know this person better than me, they grew up with her. What do they think of my accent? Director Dominique sensed her discomfort and encouraged her to take advantage of it because that’s how Monroe always felt.
“She felt insecure and unprepared all the time, judged and underestimated. So I had to trust that my emotions were adding layers,” she said. One emotional obstacle was how de Armas handled Monroe’s relationship with her absent father (Monroe allegedly grew up believing Clark Gable was her biological father).
De Armas tended to act out feelings of anger, and she admits that in the early scenes the choices were “too strong.” “I got defensive and angry and (Dominic) said, ‘You can’t be angry. Never. Anger is not something Norma can afford.”
The idea of swallowing that anger was one of the main strengths of de Armas’ performance. It so organically reflected what Monroe was going through because it was a difficult emotional journey for the actor. De Armas argues that Monroe became such a huge cultural commodity by finding a sense of belonging that she had always lacked.
“Essentially,” she explains, “the film is about her searching for her absent father. I think part of the reason she became Marilyn Monroe was because she was so prominent that he couldn’t help but find her. You see how as a child, feeling unloved and unwanted led her to need love, attention, needing someone to always be there for her. So I thought, okay, if I can’t be angry, what are my options? How else can I survive? And I started exploring all these other feelings.”
