Blonde, written and directed by Andrew Dominik, an Australian filmmaker notably known for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, is set to be released by Netflix on September 23, 2022.
The film stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and to date, there is yet another controversy for the film, this time regarding the Cuban actress’s accent which can be heard throughout the trailer. Here’s our take on this controversy that has engulfed this film.
Now, when watching the trailer, it is clearly noticeable that you are not listening to or hearing Marilyn Monroe but rather an actress impersonating her. Specifically, when Marilyn is asked ‘how she got her start’ you can immediately hear that it is de Armas making an effort to speak like Marilyn and not anything close to Marilyn herself. The difference becomes incredibly stark when you hear the musical voice over of the actual Marilyn singing against de Armas’ speaking parts.
Given that this biographical drama is very much a fictionalized version of Monroe’s life and not a true ‘biopic’, the accent may not have been an issue if the film was being presented another way perhaps. But it is very clear that the filmmakers are selling this as a ‘biopic’ in the likeness of Marilyn Monroe.
In addition to this push by the filmmakers, there was a lot of effort put into making de Armas sound like Monroe. The actress said it herself to The Times of London that she spent nearly an entire year working on her Monroe accent for Blonde before filming started with a dialect coach. Couple that with the numerous and extensive ADR sessions that were done in post in order to complete the film, it’s clear that the filmmakers wanted de Armas to achieve a vocal likeness to Monroe as much as possible.
Given the push for the likeness and similarity to Marilyn that the filmmakers were looking for, it makes you really wonder about their casting choice for an actress who had such difficulty with portraying the icon’s voice. Although we can understand the economics, the fact that de Armas is a popular rising star who at the time of casting came off the heels of a very successful Knives Out, and not to mention some resemblance to Marilyn, we’re not sure that de Armas was the best casting choice for this role.
In our humble view, many actors change their accents for roles all the time. It’s called voice acting. British actors for example sound American all the time, and some are so very good, that if you didn’t know that the actor was British, you’d never know. We find that the ‘defense’ of de Armas’ inability to get the voice right part of PR, and those critics are not saying what many people are thinking which is that they know and understand that de Armas did not get the accent quite right, but they will give her a ‘gold star’ for trying.
In the end though, maybe this won’t matter given previous reporting where Dominik has stated that the film he envisioned would not have much dialogue in it… but that remains to be seen.
For what we see, some people will be turned off and may not watch this movie on this basis alone, and that’s not including the other controversial elements the NC-17 rated biographical drama is presenting.
