Marilyn Monroe's estate has defended the casting of Ana de Armas, who is playing the Hollywood icon in the upcoming Netflix drama "Blonde."
The official trailer to Andrew Dominik's film, which premiered online July 28, was met with outrage by many who took issue with de Armas' accent. She is Cuban and her voice is not entirely close to Monroe's breathy tone. And while Monroe's estate has not authorized the film, the group did stand by de Armas.
"Marilyn Monroe is a singular Hollywood and pop culture icon that transcends generations and history," Marc Rosen, president of entertainment at Authentic Brands Group (ABG), which owns the Marilyn Monroe Estate, told Variety in a statement. "Any actor that steps into that role knows they have big shoes to fill. Based on the trailer alone, it looks like Ana was a great casting choice as she captures Marilyn's glamor, humanity and vulnerability. We can't wait to see the film in its entirety!"
In an interview with The Times of London, de Armas revealed she spent several months working on her accent for "Blonde."
"It took me nine months of dialect coaching, and practicing and some ADR sessions [to get the accent right]," she said. "It was a big torture, so exhausting. My brain was fried."
Many complaints about de Armas' casting have been centered around her Cuban accent, however, the star previously told Vanity Fair that it was "groundbreaking" for Dominik to cast a Cuban actor as the American icon.
"I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said, 'It's you,' but I had to audition for everyone else," de Armas told the magazine. "The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe. I wanted it so badly. You see that famous photo of her and she is smiling in the moment, but that's just a slice of what she was really going through at the time."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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