Ana de Armas, a Cuban and Spanish actress, had her first leading role in the romantic film Una rosa de Francia (2006) in Spain when she moved to Madrid. Armas also landed a role in the drama El Internado and stayed for six seasons. Without knowing the English language, Armas decided to move to Los Angeles in 2014. There she spent four months training to speak the language and landed her role in Knock Knock with Keanu Reeves. Following this film, she also starred in Exposed, a film that Reeves acted in and produced. Armas was also a supporting actress in War Dogs, but her skills were not fully showcased in these films. In 2017, she hit the peak of her career. She acted in Blade Runner as the girlfriend of Ryan Gosling’s character. Her screen presence was remarkable, and viewers grew fond of the actress. What really heightened her career as an actress was the film Knives Out (2019) which she played a nurse in the mystery with profound actors and actresses. In the Netflix film The Gray Man (2022) with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans she played a top CIA asset given more screen time than previous films. The multifarious roles and effortless performances are appreciated. The stunning and talented Ana De Armas is also lead actress in Deep Water (2022) with Ben Affleck. Her latest film and I think the biggest opportunity to demonstrate her determination and grace is, Blonde (2022) available on Netflix in which De Armas portrayed Marilyn Monroe in the biopic about Monroe’s life.
Ana de Armas expressed she felt insecure and observed heavily while playing the role of Marilyn Monroe in director Andrew Dominik’s film Blonde. Armas is hard working and resilient, and she has the drive to learn all aspects of her character as extraordinary actresses do. She explains in numerous interviews the challenges she faces and her fear of imperfection. There is huge controversy of whether Dominik’s film was dehumanizing a woman, Monroe. Armas researched extensively to be able to play the part and stated that she had to practice displaying guilt and generosity, rather than anger or rage. Ana De Armas says she thinks expressing one’s anger or stress is very healthy as a defense mechanism in a way, but her role as Monroe opened options emotionally while exploring other ways to connect to people and deal with Monroe’s trial and tribulations.
Although critics may view Dominik’s choices in portrayal of Monroe as dehumanizing due to the continuous focus on her appearance, body, and face, I agree with Armas that the purpose of following Monroe’s self so intimately is to emphasize emotions or lack thereof. De Armas was given this perfect opportunity on the set of Blonde to dive into her own emotions and acting faculties, taking freedoms, and immersing herself into a character’s world and reality. Ana de Armas good lib slays the screen and the runway. In a few words, Ana de Armas is humble, fashionable, resilient, and a bombshell! We love her! She is not going anywhere, as she will be casted with more roles in many films to come because of her extraordinary growth as an actress.