Ana de Armas arrived yesterday like a gale at the San Sebastián festival to present Blonde, the biopic about Marilyn Monroe directed by Andrew Dominik, which has been screened as the surprise film of this edition. The Spanish-Cuban interpreter has emerged reinforced from the enormous challenge of getting into the skin of the cinematographic myth.
During his time at the Venice festival, where he was competing in the official section, he received a 14-minute ovation. The public that attended last night's showing at the Principal Theater also enthusiastically applauded this story that draws from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates and that reflects on the lesser-known side of Norma Jean, the woman behind the star. "I was faced with the challenge of discovering who Norma Jean was and bringing to life that person who has been invisible for so long. It was a very immersive job, with a lot of volume, detail and research time. It was important for me to capture the essence of the film. movie star, capturing her voice, her talent, her sense of humor and the woman who plays that character", she explained this afternoon at a press conference.
Ana de Armas assures that there have been many months of study, research and rehearsals to be able to feel safe in a character that before embodying it "I only had a fairly basic idea of Marilyn because I had not paid attention to her and knowing her personal history was a discovery . The image of someone with so much glamour, money and success represented the dream, the perfect image, what could go wrong? Having a more complete idea of the personal history of the icon makes me respect and understand her more, be more understanding ".
Blonde highlights Marilyn's disastrous childhood with a mother with mental problems and a father who was never part of her life and for whom she was always waiting, as well as her immense pain at not being able to have children. For her part, Dominik has insisted that he sees no lewdness in the film and that she "isn't sexual," despite the fact that she does show some sex scenes. "In Blonde, nudity is used to express anger and vulnerability," said the director, whose idea of the story was that the viewer would be "broken and spend several days thinking about the experience of seeing Marilyn's life, what happened to her in childhood, pregnancy and abandonment".
Regarding the fact that the film, produced by Netflix, will be released on September 28 without going through the big screen, the director has confessed that the platform was the only one that was willing to pay for the film for what it knew what to expect. . Blonde, yes, will be seen in theaters in the United Kingdom and the United States for two weeks. "I think seeing it on a big screen is better and hurts more, but a movie is a movie and it should work under any circumstances."
De Armas considers, questioned about how he manages success and if he sees it differently since he made the film, that "it is a reflection of the moment in which we live. The level of exposure that the actors have to live has not changed much , perhaps it has gotten worse and the film makes me reflect on my own life. We all have a private and public part and it is difficult to find a balance between what you want to share and not because sometimes it does not depend on you. Blonde has made me have more empathy for other actors who are in that situation.
For her, recreating the mythical scene of The temptation lives upstairs has been "wonderful" wearing an exact replica of the white dress that rises when Marilyn passes through the fan grill. And she has shared a curious anecdote: "The boy who was blowing the dress under the grid was the grandson of the one who blew up Marilyn's dress. It was a coincidence, because he belongs to a family dedicated to making effects in movies." According to De Armas, "Both Andrew and I are very perfectionists, we wanted to reach an exquisite level and it was a surreal moment to recreate the scene."
The 34-year-old actress has experienced a meteoric rise since she landed in the United States and has participated in titles such as Blade Runner 2049 or Daggers in the Back, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for best comedy or musical actress. . Popular in Spain since 2007 when she was part of the cast of the series El internado, the interpreter has pointed out that "my goal was not to go to the US. When I made Manos de piedra I went to Panama and from there I thought of moving to the United States States, but it was not a premeditated plan, I had not even thought about it. Of course, she is clear that "I would love to work in Spain again".
