Marilyn Monroe Estate Reacts To Ana De Armas Controversy

The estate of Marilyn Monroe has come out in favor of Ana de Armas and her accent in the Blonde movie.

By Matthew Creith | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

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Cuban actor Ana de Armas has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after performers after stellar turns in recent big-budgeted endeavors. With a star-making performance in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and a memorable cameo in the most recent James Bond thriller, No Time to Die, de Armas is making a name for herself worldwide. Netflix has taken note of her talents as de Armas has finished filming a new Marilyn Monroe biographical film for the streaming platform. There has been some controversy surrounding the movie after the trailer debuted to which Monroe’s estate has a few choice words about the project.

According to a report by Variety, Marilyn Monroe’s estate has issued a statement about Ana de Armas portraying the famed blonde bombshell in the new film Blonde, defending the actor’s accent as Monroe. Authentic Brands Group owns the Marilyn Monroe Estate and said in their statement that “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!” The movie is scheduled to be released in September 2022, and features de Armas as Monroe along with Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio, and Julianne Nicholson as Monroe’s mother, Gladys Pearl Baker. The biopic is almost sure to highlight Monroe’s ups as a film sensation and her downs in her much-publicized personal struggles.

The statement from Marilyn Monroe’s estate comes on the heels of the official trailer for Blonde that was released to the public in July. As TMZ reports, Monroe’s fans were in an uproar when the trailer debuted as many felt that Ana de Armas didn’t nail down Monroe’s accent entirely, even though the actor worked for close to a year with a dialect coach to perfect Monroe’s unique voice. Without viewing the film in its entirety, it seems that audiences have already made up their minds about the casting choice of de Armas. Netflix is hedging its bets on the NC-17-rated project, however, as the film premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival and received praise from Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote the novel the film is based upon.

Norma Jeane Mortenson transformed herself into Marilyn Monroe to become one of the most photographed and talked about film actors of the 1950s and 1960s. She passed away at the age of 36 in 1962 of barbiturate overdose after high-profile marriages to James Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio, and Arthur Miller. The star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Some Like It Hot became known as a sex symbol, which Blonde and Ana de Armas will focus on when the movie is released to wider audiences. IndieWire reports about the film that Ana de Armas’ performance in Blonde reflects Monroe’s despair and sudden stardom, mixed with tales of her money troubles and marital issues. Michelle Williams famously captured Monroe’s essence in her Academy Award-nominated performance as the starlet in My Week with Marilyn, in which she starred alongside Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Redmayne. Blonde is written and directed by Andrew Dominik and is the first NC-17 film to be released on Netflix.