‘I assumed she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman’: Jamie Lee Curtis admits she thought Ana De Armas had ‘just arrived’ from Cuba when they met on Knives Out set
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Jamie Lee Curtis has confessed that she thought Ana De Armas had “just arrived” from Cuba when they met on the set of the 2019 film Knives Out.
Ana, 34, had starred in Hollywood movies with stars like Keanu Reeves and Bradley Cooper for years before Knives Out took her to a new level of fame.
But Jamie Lee told Elle having never heard of Ana before their film together, she assumed “she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman,” even thinking of pitching her to Steven Spielberg for West Side Story.
Admission: Jamie Lee Curtis (right) has confessed that she thought Ana De Armas (left) had “just arrived” from Cuba when they met on the set of Knives Out; pictured at CinemaCon in 2019
Jamie Lee, whose parents were Old Hollywood stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leight, commented: “I assumed – and I say this with great shame – because she was from Cuba, that she had just arrived.”
She said, “I assumed she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman. That first day I was like, “Oh, what are your dreams?”‘
She noted that the reason she asked about Ana’s “dreams” was that the younger actress had blown her away with her performance in Knives Out.
Jamie Lee even wanted to pitch Ana to Spielberg as a potential Maria for his new West Side Story movie, a role eventually played by YouTube star Rachel Zegler.
Throwback: Ana had made her English-language film debut years earlier in the 2015 film Knock Knock, whose premiere she is portrayed with hits by lead actor Keanu Reeves
Jamie Lee is godmother to Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal and was hoping to introduce Ana to them – only to find that Ana and Jake were already known.
Ana emerged as a teenage actress in Cuba before moving to Madrid at the age of 18 and embarking on a successful career on Spanish television.
When she came to Hollywood, her very first English-language feature film was a Keanu Reeves movie called Knock Knock, which came out in 2015.
By the time production of Knives Out began, she had already starred in a major supporting role in Blade Runner 2049 opposite Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
Star-studded: Ana and Jamie Lee are pictured in Knives Out alongside Don Johnson, who plays Jamie Lee’s character’s cheating husband
Jamie Lee wasn’t the only co-star moved by Ana’s performance in Knives Out – Daniel Craig, pictured alongside her in the film, was also
Jamie Lee wasn’t the only co-star moved by Ana’s performance in Knives Out – Daniel Craig was famously so impressed with her acting skills that he secured her a part in his latest James Bond film No Time To Die.
Fans of Ana are now eagerly awaiting her performance as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming Netflix biopic Blonde, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates.
The film started wagging his tail earlier this year when news broke that it has been given an infamously rare NC-17 rating.
Side by side: Daniel was famously so taken with her acting skills that he landed her a part in his latest James Bond film No Time To Die, which portrays them
Jamie Lee, whose father starred opposite Marilyn in the iconic Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot, has given Ana her imprimatur.
“She showed me a picture of her as Marilyn. My dad was in Some Like It Hot and I have a lot of pictures of my dad and Marilyn,” Jamie Lee told Elle.
“It was a few photos and a video of her moving through the room without sound. But it was so shocking because she was Marilyn.”
Sizzling sensation: Fans of Ana are now eagerly awaiting her performance as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming Netflix biopic Blonde, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates
Throwback: Jamie Lee, whose father played Tony Curtis opposite Marilyn in the iconic Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot (pictured), Ana has her improvised