Ana de Armas on 'Blonde' reaction: "It’s been expected, but still surprising to witness”
Ana de Armas spoke with The LA Times from pre-production on 'Ballerina' to talk a bit about the John Wick spinoff and the reactions to 'Blonde.'
“There’s no in-between with the movie, I feel like,” the actor says. “Some people just go with it and quickly make the connection. They see the photos, the cinematic language, what we were trying to do with the images and reinterpreting this story. They get it, they love it, and they think Andrew is amazing. And then, there is the other side who really don’t connect with it at all. And even beyond that, they find it offensive. So it’s been expected, but still surprising to witness.”
- The moment she was discovered in Hollywood: She had just moved to the US and actor-producer Colleen Camp approached her in a parking lot. “She had an innocence, a sweetness,” Camp remembers of the young De Armas. “I thought she was incandescent. She was very funny naturally, not trying to be funny. And I told her, ‘You know what? You remind me of Marilyn Monroe.’”
Camp would then introduce her to Eli Roth where she made her U.S. feature film debut in “Knock Knock,” having learned her dialogue phonetically.
- Director Andrew Dominik saw that film and kept her in mind: “I was looking for someone where I could see what all the fuss is about,” Dominik writes in an email. “Marilyn Monroe was like the sun onscreen - everything else revolved around her. Ana just has something that compels you to watch her and you can feel her. She was playful, she could turn on a dime and her emotions were like a force field that altered the atmosphere around her. She was powerful.”
- On if Keanu Reeves will be joining her in 'Ballerina': “To be honest, I don’t know [who is in the cast] yet. We’re not filming. We’re in pre-production,” she adds. “But it’s in the same world, so I expect some of the actors from ‘John Wick’ to come back.”
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