The Marilyn Monroe Estate Defends Ana de Armas’ Natural Accent In “Blonde”
It feels like we’ve been threatened with the release of Blonde starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe (seen above giving me more “Brittany Murphy as Judy Greer’s character in Jawbreaker” than Marilyn) for eons, but maybe I’m just confusing it with all the other 5 million Marilyn Monroe projects that are keeping Marilyn’s memory alive Marilyn from fucking resting already. But Blonde is finally landing on Netflix on September 28, whether we like it or not, and when the first full trailer was released last week, talk went from “WHY DOES THIS EXIST?!” to debate over Ana’s Cuban accent mixing in with her breathy Marilyn voice. The owners of The Marilyn Monroe Estate have taken a side and they have defended Ana’s performance in the trailer, accent and all. But then again, the Estate also defended Kim Kardashian after her nuclear power plant ass destroyed Marilyn’s dress!!!!
Writer/director Andrew Dominik (director of Killing Them Softly and The Assassination of Jesse James...) has been working on Blonde, which is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 biographical fiction novel, for over 10 years. Originally, Naomi Watts was cast as Marilyn in 2010 and then Jessica Chastain replaced Naomi in 2014 before the platinum wig officially landed on Ana’s head in 2019. In 2020, Ana told Vanity Fair that it only took one audition to convince Andrew that she was his Marilyn, but she had to do her Marilyn cosplay several more times to also convince producers and the money people. Once she got everyone’s seal of approval, she started working on her best Marilyn voice. While talking to The Times of London last year, Ana said that she worked with a dialect coach for 9 months to perfect her Marilyn Monroe voice and it was exhausting. Mieka posted the trailer last week, but if you need a refresher on the Marilyn Monroe voice that caused Ana de Armas to take many a recharge nap, here you go:
I just hear a whispering Ana de Armas, like Ana de Armas in a sexy library. But this isn’t your mama’s Marilyn Monroe movie! And many people and their mamas took to Twitter to drag Ana de Armas for not working hard enough on Marilyn’s American accent. While others pointed out the many, many, many times that American actors have nearly caused World War III by butchering the ever-loving shit out of a foreign accent. They’re not wrong. My ears still haven’t recovered from Angelina Jolie’s Count Chocula accent in Alexander or whatever the fuck came out of Jon Voight’s mouth in Anaconda. Yeah, Angie and Jon Voight disagree on a lot of things, but they do agree on butchering foreign accents.
let me remind those commenting on ana de armas' accent playing marilyn monroe that we have a long history of american actors botching accents of other nationalities in film and you don't blink twice. you'll survive.
— ginger snaps (@boricuavecna) July 28, 2022
Marc Rosen, president of entertainment at Authentic Brands Group, owners of the Marilyn Monroe Estate, said in a statement to Variety that they approve of Ana’s casting:
“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!”
Blonde has an NC-17 rating, has already been described as a “sick fantasy,” and like Joyce’s book, it’s a fuckery-filled fictionalized re-telling of Marilyn’s life. So I’m not sure if those who choose to watch this are really going to focus on Ana’s natural accent while taking in the WTF scene where Marilyn talks to her fetus about abortion. I mean, it’s clear that the talking fetus is going to steal the show.
Pic: Netflix