The first time Havana born actor Ana de Armas was told she resembled Marilyn Monroe she was standing in a parking lot having just been introduced to actor producer Colleen Camp. She had an innocence a sweetness Camp remembers of the young De Armas. I thought she was incandescent. She was very funny naturally not trying to be funny. And I told her You know what? You remind me of Marilyn Monroe.
Back then De Armas did not know what to think. She would already starred in a romantic drama Una rosa de Francia in Cuba then became famous in Spain by appearing for six seasons in a popular teen series El Internado The Boarding School. But now she was newly arrived in Hollywood with a very light grasp of the English language attempting to start her career from scratch.
At the time I was like What is this lady saying? says De Armas speaking via Zoom from a hotel room in Prague. But she was right. She was the original to say that.The way Camp tells the story she was so captivated by De Armas that she urged director Eli Roth to meet with her. The rest is erotic psychological horror film history The De Armas made her U.S. feature film debut as a scantily clad temptress in Knock Knock having learned her dialogue phonetically. Years later another director Andrew Dominik would settle in front of his TV stumble onto Knock Knock and make that same connection between De Armas and the 50s era blond bombshell.
For the last 15 years, Dominik had been trying to get a movie made based on Joyce Carol Oates’ bestseller Blonde a fictionalized biography of Monroe, from her turbulent upbringing to her rise to stardom to her tragic demise at age 36. I was looking for someone where I could see what all the fuss is about Dominik writes in an email. Marilyn Monroe was like the sun onscreen everything else revolved around her. Ana just has something that compels you to watch her and you can feel her. She was playful she could turn on a dime and her emotions were like a force field that altered the atmosphere around her. She was powerful. The way I approach every part is to really commit says De Armas. I do a part and I do the best I can with the material I have. I give everything I have got. My full attention. But some parts require more than the other. In this case this one required as much precision and work and just for me to be there mentally. I did not want to miss a step. Not just in an ambitious way of saying I have to nail this part. It was also for myself.
Indeed with a budget of a reported $22 million Blonde was shot in pre pandemic 2019 in 47 days a time frame that required zigzagging all over Los Angeles filming at more than 22 locations many where Monroe had actually resided or hung out. Her apartments the 1920s bungalow where she lived with her mother when she was a little girl and the house where she lived and died says De Armas ticking off meaningful locations. She and Dominik also visited Monroes gravesite at Westwood Village Memorial Park. She has all over L.A. She has there. And everyone knows a story.
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