Here’s your first look at BLONDE.
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik ((The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)), the film boasts a cast led by Ana de Armas and featuring Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.
Based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, BLONDE boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe.
From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, Blonde blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.
The film is rated NC-17.
From Netflix Queue: “Andrew’s ambitions were very clear from the start — to present a version of Marilyn Monroe’s life through her lens,” says Ana de Armas (Knives Out, The Gray Man, No Time To Die) who stars as the Hollywood icon. “He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”
“We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” recalls de Armas. “I read Joyce’s novel, studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, films — anything I could get my hands on. Every scene is inspired by an existing photograph. We’d pore over every detail in the photo and debate what was happening in it. The first question was always, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling here?’ We wanted to tell the human side of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible.”
De Armas’s commitment to Blonde was tireless — she spent between two-and-a-half to three hours in hair and makeup each morning of the film’s 47-day shoot before arriving on set to work through a series of emotionally wrenching scenes. Her fearless, multifaceted performance consistently impressed Dominik. “I was really lucky to have Ana because she could just do anything,” Dominik says. “She was so good. She would get there so quickly. Her feelings were just so under her skin, and anything I said to her, she really understood. The scenes would always just come to life because Ana was there.”
The producers of BLONDE are Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B; Tracey Landon and Scott Robertson.
BLONDE premieres on Netflix on September 23rd, 2022.
