The first teaser trailer for Andrew Dominik’s drama movie Blonde has been released, giving us our first proper look at Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. The film is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel – not a biography – about Monroe’s inner life.
Andrew Dominik is a director from New Zealand who has only made five feature films since 2000, two of which are documentaries. His first film was 2000’s Chopper, which gave Eric Bana his breakthrough role as a violent criminal. His next film was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which is widely considered one of the best modern westerns.
Domink also directed 2012’s underseen Brad Pitt movie Killing Them Softly. He followed this up with two documentaries about rock star Nick Cave – one in 2016, and one in 2022. He also directed two episodes of the Netflix series Mindhunter. Ana de Armas has seen a meteoric rise to her career in recent years, with roles in Blade Runner 2049, Knives Out, No Time to Die, and Deep Water. She is in two upcoming movies alongside Chris Evans – The Gray Man and Ghosted.
Much has been made of the fact that Blonde will apparently have the rare NC-17 rating in the US, the first Netflix original film to have this rating. We know it’s because of the sexual content, but have no more detail than that. The teaser starts in black-and-white and shows de Armas in front of a dressing room mirror. She is crying, praying and saying “please come…please don’t abandon me” implying that Norma Jean is asking her famous persona of Marilyn Monroe to arrive and inhabit her. Her make up artist reassures her that; “she’s coming…she’s almost here.”
You can watch the teaser trailer below;
The other reason that Monroe has been in the news recently is that Kim Kardashian controversially wore her dress to the Met Gala. It was the iconic number that Monroe wore when singing “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to JFK.
If you’re excited for Blonde, check out our guide to other movies based on a true story.