Ana De Armas Is Disgusted By The Internet’s Obsession With Her Nudity
Ana de Armas says she's disgusted knowing her nude scenes from the upcoming Blonde will "go viral."
This article is more than 2 years old
Ana de Armas’s highly anticipated turn as the late Marilyn Monroe in Netflix‘s Blonde is almost here, and the star says she’s known all along its streaming arrival would soon be followed her nude body showing up all over the web. The Blade Runner 2049 star told Variety that she expects that more than anything, it will be her nude scenes that get the most online attention. “I know what’s going to go viral, and it’s disgusting,” De Armas told the outlet.
“It’s upsetting just to think about it,” Ana de Armas continued. “I can’t control it; you can’t really control what they do and how they take things out of context.”
She clarified, however, that in spite of her expectations, she never considered backing out of the film because of it. “I don’t think it gave me second thoughts,” Ana de Armas said. “It just gave me a bad taste to think about the future of those clips.”
Considering Blonde‘s NC-17 rating, it may be surprising to hear Ana de Armas speak so ill of a fascination with nude and/or sex scenes, but there’s a fair chance the scene she’s anticipating to “go viral” is one that depicts rape. Yahoo News and others have reported there are a number of scenes in Blonde that portray the star being physically and/or sexually assaulted, including one in which President John F. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson) forces himself on her.
It’s a good idea to remember that the upcoming Ana de Armas film–in spite of the word often being used to describe the movie–is not a biopic. Blonde is based on a 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, in which the author imagined Monroe’s death being part of a grand conspiracy involving the Kennedys.
Which is not to suggest that the real Marilyn Monroe was not a victim of sexual assault. In her 2000 biography of the icon, Barbara Leaming chronicled multiple sexual assaults Monroe endured; many which she suffered as a child.
As Yahoo News notes, writer/director Andrew Dominik is not going for historical accuracy in Blonde so much as highlighting the “loneliness, isolation, and trauma,” of the icon Ana de Armas plays.
It’s no surprise that Dominik has gone down a more shocking route for the film. As soon as rumblings began that the Ana de Armas feature might be hit with an NC-17 rating, Dominik’s response was, “It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f—–g audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”
The only person whose blessing Ana de Armas seemed interested in when making the film was the subject herself. In a recent interview, the actress revealed that she visited Marilyn Monroe’s grave before making the film, bringing with her a card with messages written by most of the crew. She said she was “asking for permission in a way.”
Regardless of how audiences receive Blonde, one thing seems certain: no one will be able to accuse Ana de Armas of not giving her all for the film. She told Variety, “I did things in this movie I would have never done for anyone else, ever… I did it for her, and I did it for Andrew.”
Blonde premieres on Netflix next Wednesday, September 28. The film is written and directed by Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly). Along with Ana de Armas, the film stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Caspar Phillipson, and Toby Huss.
