Ana de Armas Says Marilyn Monroe’s Spirit Was With Her For The Filming Of “Blonde”

The fictionalized Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, has been a topic of discussion for some time. The film, based on the novel Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, has got tons of press for being reportedly too nasty and crazy for the people at Netflix. The film is rated NC-17, which means that there might be a visible nut-shot in it because that’s what level that is, and even the book it’s based on has been accused of gratuitously capitalizing on a woman’s tragic life by creating a fictional biography of her that includes rape. But the reviews are in, and after its screening at the Venice Film Festival, Ana de Armas is being praised for her performance as a fictional Marilyn, one person calling it “uncanny.” Which I’m assuming actually means “uncanny, except for the accent.“ But we have Marilyn herself to thank for this tour-de-force because according to Ana, her spirit was with her during filming. Wow, these ghosts don’t have anything else to do except hang out with actresses?

Thursday’s premiere of the film featured Brad Pitt showing up to help hog some positive attention after that FBI report about his drunken berating of his family came out a while ago. But it makes sense that he’s there, and not just for PR–he’s also a producer of the film.

Ana de Armas in Louis Vuitton on the Blonde premiere red carpet — and Brad Pitt struggling not to step on it #Venezia79 #venicefilmfestival pic.twitter.com/lKLLN4AhZd

— DreaminLace (@DreamInLace) September 8, 2022

After the premiere, reviews came in raving about 34-year-old Ana’s job as Marilyn–and it better be good because you’re gonna be staring at her ass for almost 3 full hours when this movie is released on Netflix on September 23, via People:

Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson wrote that the actress is “fiercely, almost scarily committed to the role, maintaining high and focused energy through every torrent of tears and screams and traumas” and crafts a “vivid and frightening picture of the madness of fame.”

She “carries the film squarely on her shoulders,” according to Deadline’s Damon Wise, describing her performance as “all-in, ferociously emotional but complex in its nuances as it explores the child-like sex symbol’s many paradoxes.”

Sophie Monks Kaufman wrote in an IndieWire review that de Armas’ “uncanny resemblance to Marilyn takes the film a long way.”

However, some reviews also note that shit gets real after the 2-hour mark:

David Rooney wrote for The Hollywood Reporter that her “raw” performance “strips the most examined woman in pop-culture history bare, literally and metaphorically.”

“But,” added Rooney, “as [the movie] lurches on well past the 2-hour mark, spiraling deeper into nightmare, Blonde becomes a lurid horror movie, at times overwhelmingly unpleasant.”

Ana spoke with the press at the premiere and she claims that Marilyn’s spirit was around during their filming. No early Oscar campaign is complete without some supernatural happenings, is it? via People:

“I truly believe that she was very close to us. She was with us,” de Armas said, according to Reuters. “She was all I thought about, she was all I dreamt about, she was all I could talk about, she was with me and it was beautiful.”

She also claimed that Monroe’s ghost made her feelings known if she wasn’t happy with how they were depicting her on camera.

“I think she was happy. She would also throw things off the wall sometimes and get mad if she didn’t like something. Maybe this sounds very mystical, but it is true. We all felt it,” de Armas explained.

If you’re wondering why Marilyn’s spirit may have been restless, there are a few reasons. Writer and director of the film, Andrew Dominik, says they filmed in the same apartment where Marilyn lived with her mentally ill mother, and filmed Marilyn’s death in the literal room where she died, saying “It definitely took on elements of being like a séance.” AND they started filming the same day Marilyn died in 1962–August 4th. So they weren’t going to let this bitch rest–they were not giving her a choice.

Sadly, I know that Marilyn’s spirit will still be getting prodded at, and not just because of the movie’s impending release. Because after reading about this, some Ana de Armas Updates-type stan is absolutely going to perform an actual séance and bother Marilyn some more to ask her what Ana was like during filming.

Here’s more of Brad and Ana at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Blonde:

Pics: IPA/INSTARimages/Cover Images