Andrew Dominik, director of the 2022 film “Blonde” starring Ana de Armas, spoke out Sunday in defense of the way Marilyn Monroe was portrayed in his movie.
Audiences and critics alike decried De Armas’ representation of the iconic actress, saying her Cuban accent was too heavy and that she wasn’t an accurate portrayal of Monroe. The Netflix biopic faced criticism after the film’s world premiere in Venice, where Dominik discovered U.S. audiences had the most adverse response to the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR). He reportedly blamed them for only wanting to see Monroe depicted in an iconic, celebratory light.
“Now we’re living in a time where it’s important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman. That’s what they want to see,” Dominik said while speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, according to THR. “And if you’re not showing them that, it upsets them,” he added about American audiences.
Andrew Dominik Blames ‘Blonde’ Backlash on Americans Wanting Marilyn Monroe Portrayed as “Empowered Woman” https://t.co/OsM8oFKY1e
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) December 4, 2022
When it came to the film’s American viewers, “they hated the movie!” Dominik said, according to THR.
The Australian director addressed criticism that the film exploited Monroe, saying the backlash was “kind of strange,” because Monroe is deceased and the movie doesn’t “make any difference in one way or another,” THR reported.
“What they really mean is that the film exploited their memory of her, their image of her, which is fair enough. But that’s the whole idea of the movie,” Dominik said, according to the outlet. (RELATED: Ana De Armas Fears Her Nude Scenes In Movie ‘Blonde’ Will Go Megaviral)
Dominik went on to discuss the creative process behind capturing the essence of someone in a movie.
“It’s trying to take the iconography of her life and put it into service of something else, it’s trying to take things that you’re familiar with, and turning the meaning inside out. But that’s what they don’t want to see,” he said, THR reported.
Dominik added he was “really pleased” that “Blonde” had “outraged so many people.” He said American films have recently become “more conservative” and reportedly compared them to bedtime stories with predictable plot lines.
“But I don’t want to make bedtime stories,” Dominik said, according to the outlet.