Trivia / Blonde

• Ability over Appearance: Although many people complained about Ana de Armas being Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe, an American, Andrew Dominik maintains that she gave the best audition; in fact, he was ready to cast her after her very first one (and she only had to audition again for producers).
• Approval of God:
  • The estate of Marilyn Monroe gave their praise to Ana de Armas's casting and said they were looking forward to seeing the film.
    "Based on the trailer alone, it looks like Ana was a great casting choice as she captures Marilyn's glamour, humanity and vulnerability."
  • Joyce Carol Oates gave her approval of the film after seeing a rough cut. In her words:
    Joyce Carol Oates: I think it was/is a brilliant work of cinematic art obviously not for everyone. surprising that in a post#MeToo era the stark exposure of sexual predation in Hollywood has been interpreted as "exploitation." surely Andrew Dominik meant to tell Norma Jeane's story sincerely.
• Creator's Oddball: Andrew Dominik commented on how this was his first film to feature a female protagonist, with less emphasis on dialogue and more about "an avalanche of historical events".
• Executive Meddling: Netflix actually told Dominik to tone down the film's sexual content and he shot it with an R Rating in mind. He was surprised when it still got an NC-17 and both Netflix and Dominik just accepted the rating.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: It took twelve years to acquire the proper funding to get the film off the ground. It began filming in 2019 but had to be delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and it wasn't finished until 2021.
• Fake American:
  • Cuban-Spanish Ana de Armas plays the American Marilyn Monroe. It even made a point of contention that in the trailers, de Armas's Cuban accent is still noticeable even when she's trying to imitate Monroe.^note And being one of the main reasons she doesn't dub herself in the Latin American Spanish dub, as traditionally done by Netflix due to internal policies regarding Latino actors, as that would be the equivalent of Marilyn Monroe speaking with a Jamaican accent.
  • Danish actor Caspar Phillipson plays John F. Kennedy.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film was released in 2022, 60 years after Marilyn's death.
• Role Reprise: Caspar Phillipson reprises his role as JFK from Jackie.
• Starring a Star as a Star: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates's novel was first greenlit in 2010, with Naomi Watts attached to play Marilyn. In the mid 2010s, Jessica Chastain was also attached to play the role.
  • While in the finished film scenes of some of Marilyn Monroe's films are actual scenes from those films that just have Ana de Armas superimposed over Marilyn, Andrew Dominik initially couldn't get the rights to the films, so he shot full recreations of the scenes. The MGM executive who had been opposing that was fired during production, and his replacement gave them permission to use the footage.

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