New Delhi

Ana de Armas essayed the American actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik's biopic Blonde. Based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, the film divided critics, though everyone agreed Armas was transcendent in the role. Now the Cuban-Spanish actress has responded to the backlash. She said when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the reaction to it was much more positive but reactions by US media get more attention. She told The Hollywood Reporter, "It was not a movie that was made to please people or to make people like it. It is a hard movie to watch."

Advertisment

Also Read: 'Blonde' movie review: A splendid Ana de Armas gives her career-best performance in this middling film

She added, "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]."

Advertisment

The film charts her meteoric rise and mental illness issues that culminated in her death by suicide. The story tries to probe into who Monroe really was beneath the alluring smiles she pasted for the benefit of cameras. 

Adrien Brody, Xavier Samuel, and Julianne Nicholson also star. 

WION's review of the movie was mixed. A section of the review read, "The camera focusses predominantly on Armas, and the film stands or tumbles on her performance. Luckily, the performance in question is absolutely amazing. It manages to capture at once her pain, her exhaustion, and her childlike delight, and her different moods. Armas is too good an actress to simply imitate Monroe. What she does is an interpretation, capturing the depth of the late starlet's psyche. It is a full-bodied, heartbreaking performance that makes the character more complicated than the script could ever dream to manage."

Advertisment

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.