Ana de Armas has dazzled audiences in recent years with memorable roles in Blade Runner 2049, Knives Out and No Time To Die, but one of her upcoming projects will arguably be her biggest role yet. The Spanish actress has transformed into Marilyn Monroe for the upcoming movie Blonde, and ahead of the movie’s release later this year, it’s looking like the movie could make history for its studio Netflix.
It’s been rumored since last year that Blonde received a NC-17 rating, and the film’s director, Andrew Dominik, has confirmed that the MPAA seemed to confirm that the movie could make Netflix history. As he shared with an F-bomb thrown in:
It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. 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.
Rumor has it that part of the reason the rating is NC-17 is because of a cunnilingus scene featuring menstrual blood, which Andrew Dominik called untrue, but “hilarious.” There is, however, reportedly a rape scene in Blonde, as the movie tells the story of an “unloved girl” and what it’s like to go through the “Hollywood meat-grinder,” per Dominik’s words. During an interview with Screen Daily, the filmmaker also pointed out Netflix’s involvement:
It’s much easier to support stuff when you like it. It’s much harder when you don’t. I have nothing but gratitude for Netflix.
Andrew Dominik did not delve into the nature of the rating, and it seems too early for Blonde to have an official MPAA rating, but he called the NC-17 for the movie “a bunch of horseshit.” As the filmmaker said, there will certainly still be interest in a more profane Marilyn Monroe movie, and given the subject matter, he believes it's “demanding” to the audience.
The issue with NC-17 ratings is it poses a problem when it comes to distribution in theaters. If Blonde has support from Netflix, the movie certainly has a home there (which we do wonder how the streaming service will police such content). But on top of that, Andrew Dominik is looking to debut Blonde in theaters, and not all exhibitors are typically on board with playing a film that has a higher distinction than an R-rating.
The movie has been a long time passion project for its director, we’ll be excited to see Blonde with a Netflix subscription once the movie nails down an official release date on the 2022 Netflix movie schedule. Blonde is a book-to-movie adaptation based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel that is a fictionalized chronicle of the Hollywood star’s life.
While we wait for more news on Blonde, we can expect to see Ana de Armas in The Gray Man with Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Regé-Jean Page, also on Netflix, and Deep Water with Ben Affleck on Hulu sometime this year.
