Ana de Armas channeled the legendary Marilyn Monroe as she walked the carpet for the world premiere of Blonde at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8. The Cuban-born actress, 34, who plays Marilyn in the Andrew Dominik-directed reimagining of the late actress’ life, stunned in a gorgeous pink gown by Louis Vuitton. The dress featured a plunging neckline and pleated material that seemed to pay homage to one of Marilyn’s most iconic looks: The white halter-neck dress she wore in the 1955 film, The Seven Year Itch, which she had to hold down as a vent in the ground blew air up at her.
Ana looked elated to be walking the carpet for the film, which is slated to drop on Netflix on Sept. 23, as she flashed a gorgeous smile to photographers. Ana went all-out to accessorize the dress and donned a brilliant diamond necklace by Messika designed to look like wings coming together around her neck and a glistening diamond bracelet on her left wrist. She paired the sparkling jewels with stud earrings and a dainty ring on her right pinky finger. Her beautiful brunette hair was styled in classic Hollywood glamor waves.
Although Ana’s performance is already getting rave reviews, the road to the premiere has not been easy. Earlier in the year, Ana came under fire for having a Spanish accent, which made trolls believe she was unfit to play the California-born pop culture icon. However, Brad Pitt, who serves as a producer on Blonde, came to her defense and said Ana is the only reason why the movie could happen. “It was 10 years in the making,” the Ad Astra star, 58, told Entertainment Tonight in August about the film. “It wasn’t until we found Ana that we could get it across the finish line.” He also said he believes the Golden Globe nominee did a “phenomenal” job portraying Marilyn.
“I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said, ‘It’s you,’” the Knives Out star told Vanity Fair in 2020, seemingly confirming Brad’s statements. “But I had to audition for everyone else,” she continued. “The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe. I wanted it so badly.”
Ana also revealed how much work went into making sure she portrayed Marilyn perfectly, both the the stage Marilyn and the real her: Norma Jeane Mortenson. “We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” she told Netflix Queue in June. “I read Joyce [Carol]’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.”
Further describing what the movie is about, she added, “The film moves along with her feelings and her experiences. There are moments when we are inside of her body and mind, and this will give the audience an opportunity to experience what it was like to be Norma and Marilyn at the same time.”