Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde first official trailer: Ana de Armas transforms into screen legend

The first official trailer for the Netflix film Blonde about Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe was shared on Thursday morning.

Cuban actress Ana de Armas convincingly transforms into the blonde bombshell who starred in such movies as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Niagara and The Seven Year Itch.

And in this clip Joe DiMaggio, played by Bobby Cannavale, is seen for the first time as he dines with his future wife.

 When he asks her how she got her start, she seems confused then explains that she was ‘discovered.’ Next she looks melancholy as she shares that Marilyn Monroe is a character that she has become sick of. 

The clip opens with a man banging on the door of her dressing room.

She is seen in front of a mirror as she blows a kiss to herself in the mirror and smiles. Then she walks out to a crowd cheering for her. The attention feels overwhelming as we see the mania from her perspective.

Next she is seen dining with baseball legend Joe DiMaggio who asks her how she got her start. She seems confused by the question then said she was ‘discovered.’

Then Monroe said she is supposed to get used to the fame but she can’t.

And she explains that she is playing Marilyn Monroe and she ‘can’t face’ doing another scene with Marilyn Monroe because ‘Marilyn doesn’t exit.’

And she then says that when she comes out of her dressing room, she is Norma Jean. Norma Jean was her birth name.

The star is then seen throwing a fit in her car before she crashes into a tree.

‘Marilyn Monroe only exists on the screen,’ she tells DiMaggio before the clip ends. 

In the first official teaser shared in June, Monroe was made to look like a wreck who perked up just before a photo shoot. 

She was seen sobbing as the blonde bombshell who says she does not want to be abandoned before her male makeup artist tells her that her friend will be coming ‘soon’ to help her.

Soon after she catches a look at herself in the mirror and perks up which leads to a smile and laugh, which highlights her mercurial nature. 

Also in the June teaser, De Armas is seen dressed up in character for some of Monroe’s biggest hit films from the 1950s, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch.

De Armas, who used to date Oscar-winning actor and director Ben Affleck, was stunning as the Hollywood legend who died under mysterious circumstances in 1962.

The Blonde clip has a haunting feel that suggests Monroe was vulnerable yet caught up in her own movie star image.

When the star is told that her friend is almost there, Marilyn goes from weeping to smiling as she looks in a mirror at her own superstar appearance, and then laughing, which hints at her erratically changing moods.

Her sudden mood swing is alarming but her big smile and laugh is intoxicating just like it is in her famous movies. 

The movie goddess is also seen being mobbed by fans and the press as the police help the distressed celebrity through a crowd. Over the clip, Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend is sung in a slow, moody voice.

The movie is based on a 2000 book by Joyce Carol Oates and is directed by Andrew Dominik.

Blonde is scheduled for release in September on Netflix and will be the streaming service’s first original film to garner an NC-17 rating. 

There has been controversy over Netflix sharing a film with a NC-17 rating but the director blew off the uproar in February: ‘It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.’

Ana shared the trailer on Instagram with the caption, ‘BLONDE. What a beautiful dream!

‘Andrew’s ambitions were very clear from the start — to present a version of Marilyn Monroe’s life through her lens. He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.’

The official Blonde synopsis from Netflix reads: ‘[The film] boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, Blonde blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.’

The NC-17 rated biopic has ‘something in it to offend everyone’ said the film’s Australian director Dominik said in May.

The 54-year-old New Zealand native in an interview with Vulture in May said he was surprised the upcoming Netflix film received the NC-17 rating, which does not allow anyone under 18 to watch in theaters in any circumstance. 

‘On the one hand, I think if I’m given the choice, I’d rather go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story,’ he shared.

‘Because we know that her life was on the edge, clearly, from the way it ended. Do you want to see the warts-and-all version or do you want to see that sanitized version?’ Dominik said.

Blonde has been a longtime project for Dominik with shooting first scheduled to start way back in January 2011.

Dominik said it was an ‘interesting time’ for Blonde to be released.

‘If it had come out a few years ago, it would have come out right when Me Too hit and it would have been an expression of all that stuff. We’re in a time now, I think, where people are really uncertain about where any lines are,’ he said.

‘It’s a film that definitely has a morality about it. But it swims in very ambiguous waters because I don’t think it will be as cut-and-dried as people want to see it. There’s something in it to offend everyone,’ Dominik added.

Jessica Chastain, 45, was in talks in 2014 to play Monroe. Armas, 34, in late 2019 was cast in the lead role.

The supporting cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams. 

Dominik gushed about the actress while responding to a question about his casting of Australian actor and comedian Eric Bana, 53, to portray notorious Australian criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read in his 2000 biopic Chopper.

‘He could do Mark. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, the real guy? It’s unbelievable how close Eric is to that guy. His own father thought that in some parts of Chopper, it was actually Mark. Usually, the problem with most films is they’re miscast. Not most films, but it can happen,’ Dominik said.

‘It’s the same problem with Blonde. You have to cast somebody that you buy as Marilyn Monroe. She’s amazing, that girl. You’ve got no idea, dude. You’ve got no idea how good Ana is. She’s as good as James Gandolfini,’ he declared.