Netflix has released a new trailer for its first NC-17 original movie, Blonde, which stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. The film is based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel, and it touches on the star’s public and private life.
Blonde is not a traditional biopic, as the movie will blur the lines between fact and fiction, Netflix said. It tells the story of how a woman, Norma Jeane Baker, became the incredibly popular celebrity Marilyn Monroe in the ’50s and ’60s.
de Armas said in a Netflix interview that director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James) wanted to make a movie that lets people see both Marilyn and Norma Jeane. “I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen,” she said.
Dominik said Monroe is a “deeply traumatized” person and that Blonde will dig into Norma Jeane coming to terms with herself and her persona, Marilyn. This duality is “both her armor and the thing that is threatening to consume her,” Dominik said.
Blonde will feature a depiction of Monroe’s real-life performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It will also take major creative liberties and feature characters based on historical figures and “amalgams of people she might have known.”
The supporting cast includes Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, and Julianne Nicholson.
de Armas also spoke about the lengths that herself, Dominik, and the rest of the creative team went to in creating Blonde. “We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” de Armas said. “Every scene is inspired by an existing photograph. 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 underwent a major physical transformation to play Monroe, which included nearly three hours in hair and makeup every day of the film’s 47-day shoot.
Blonde carries an NC-17 rating, making it the first Netflix original film to carry that rating. Dominik said people perceive him to be “provocative,” but that is not his intention. “I’m just trying to say it as clearly as I can. My ambition is to make you fall in love with Marilyn,” he said.
Dominik previously said Blonde would “offend everyone” who sees it. Viewers can decide for themselves when Blonde comes to Netflix on September 23.
Source: Gamespot
