Marilyn Monroe’s life and death. Blonde, based on the novel by author Joyce Carol Oates, debuted on Netflix in September of last year, giving a dramatized version of the late starlet’s personal life and profession. The film received mixed to unfavorable reviews, with most critics noting that, while de Armas’ acting is strong, the picture itself falls short.
In a recent interview with THR, de Armas discusses the film Blonde and its portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. Although not disregarding criticism of the picture, the actor emphasizes that it was never Dominik’s objective to produce a crowd-pleaser, and that one of the key ideas of Blonde is its condemnation of Hollywood’s exploitative nature. See de Armas’ complete comment below:
“When we premiered the movie in Venice, or San Sebastián, [the reaction was much warmer than the reception was in the U.S.]. Of course, the reaction that gets the most attention is the one in the U.S., but that wasn’t the whole experience. It’s hard to hear these reactions, but you can always go back to what you experienced, and why you did it, and the reasons why you were attracted to the project. That is not going to change. You have the director, and you have other actors that you can always talk to. As hard as it is to hear when people don’t like your film, it is what it is. It was not a movie that was made to please people or to make people like it. It is a hard movie to watch. I don’t think the movie speaks badly about her a bit. I think it’s the opposite. I think it speaks badly about the environment and the industry, and that’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes for other people in the business. I feel like the movie also makes the audience feel like participants. We contributed at the time, and we still contribute, in the exploitation of actors, people in the public eye. We, the audience, do this. And I feel like it’s possible that some people have felt like [someone] pointed a finger at [them].”