Marilyn Monroe’s name has been a hot topic as of late, first with reality star Kim Kardashian donning (and allegedly damaging) one of her iconic gowns at this year’s Met Gala, and now, with Knives Out actress Ana de Armas bringing her back to life in the forthcoming Netflix original, Blonde.
The first trailer arrived earlier this week, and as Entertainment Weekly notes, it “blurs the line between reality and fiction” throughout the late starlet’s tragic life as she attempts to maintain both her identity and sanity while the movie industry does everything it can to crush her spirit.
Marilyn Monroe in 1954 — Baron/Getty Images
“I’ve played Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe,” Armas says while channelling the historic sex symbol. “I can’t face doing another scene with Marilyn Monroe,” she adds while a chilling version of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” from 1953’s Gentleman Prefer Blondes plays.
“Marilyn doesn’t exist. When I come out of my dressing room, I’m Norma Jean. I’m still her when the camera is rolling. Marilyn Monroe only exists on the screen.”
The film was adapted from a Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, and shouldn’t be regarded as a biopic, but rather, “a fantastical depiction of Monroe’s life.”
In the official synopsis, it’s stressed that Blonde is a “boldly imaginative project” that highlights “a life both known and unknown” while exploring some of the complications Norma Jean was faced with throughout her tragically short life.
Director Andrew Dominik described his film as “a movie for all the unloved children of the world” while speaking with Collider.
“It’s like Citizen Kane and Raging Bull had a baby daughter,” he explained. “The whole idea of Blonde was to detail a childhood drama and then show the way in which that drama splits the adults into a public and private self.”
“And how the adult sees the world through the lens of that childhood drama, and it’s sort of a story of a person whose rational picture of the world as being overwhelmed by her unconscious, and it uses the iconography of Marilyn Monroe.”
Check out the trailer below, and tap back in with HNHH later for more pop culture news updates.
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