Superstar Ana de Armas is truly unrecognizable as she channels Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe in the chaotic trailer that dropped Thursday from her new film about the screen legend’s short life: “Blonde.”
In the two-minute plus trailer from the upcoming NC-17 Netflix biopic, the 34-year-old actress looked very similar to the late starlet as Ana’s character argues she’s still Norma Jeane and that Marilyn Monroe “doesn’t exist.” The message “watched by all” and “seen by none” comes across the screen.
“I’ve played Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe,” de Armas explained. “I can’t face doing another scene with Marilyn Monroe.”
“Marilyn doesn’t exist,” she added. “When I come out of my dressing room, I’m Norma Jeane. I’m still here when the camera is rolling. Marilyn Monroe only exists on the screen.”
De Armas’s character goes from smiling in front of cameras to crying, and even mouthing the words “help me.” At one point, we see the actress being carried by two men down a long hallway. In another, we see de Armas screaming while driving a car before it slammed into a tree, crashing the windshield.
WATCH:
The film is based on author Joyce Carol Oates’ 1999 book by the same name.
“The way [former President John F.] Kennedy treated Marilyn Monroe was not, and is still not as different from the way many powerful men, especially in Washington DC, treat all women except their wives,” Oates told Vanity Fair France.
“We worked on this film for hours, every single day for almost a year,” the “Knives Out” star told Netflix Queue earlier this about her movie. “I read Joyce’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,” she added. “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.”
The movie hits the streaming site on September 23.