the rise of Cuban star Ana de Armas

Perhaps the role of a lifetime… Slipping into the dress of icon Marilyn Monroe in the biopic Blonde hair premiered in Venice, the Cuban Ana de ArmasHollywood darling, wants to complete his American dream.

Nothing seemed to destine the one who was born just before the end of the Cold War, in 1988 on the soil of the Castro dictatorship, to chain the American blockbusters, in the roles of strong and seductive women. Yet it is this young actress with a charming smile, who did not speak English before arriving in the United States, who was chosen by director Andrew Dominik for this golden role.

Read alsoBlonde hair, the biopic on Marilyn Monroe, surprises with a trailer full of drama

Brunette with hazel eyes, Ana de Armas spent her childhood and adolescence in Cuba. At the time, no game consoles or DVDs. The little girl, who happens to hitchhike to go to school, develops a taste for interpreting roles by playing with her friends, in the streets or on the beaches. At 14, the one who discovered American cinema in front of her television screen joined a theater school, encouraged by her parents. Two years later, she made her first film.

But the shores of the island, subjected to the communist regime, are quickly too narrow. And Ana de Armas decides to leave at 18 for Madrid, where she joins her grandparents. She quickly landed a role in a series, The boarding schooland becomes a familiar face.

The United States is still a long way off, but when you have to start all over again, Ana de Armas does not hesitate. In 2006, she flew to Hollywood without speaking English! No matter, she embarks on four months of intensive courses. This departurewas not easy because, in Spain, I had created a new family“, she confided to Spanish television.

First of all blade runner 2049 then James Bond girl character

His American career will quickly accelerate, with in particular with a remarkable performance in blade runner 2049 (2017), the sequel to Ridley Scott’s cult film, where she plays Joi, the hologram that keeps Ryan Gosling’s character company.

But it’s his pas de deux with Daniel Craig that definitely installs him: first in the enigma film At loggerheadswhere he plays an inspector, and she, a nurse in the service of a wealthy family, – a role that will earn him a nomination for the Golden Globes -, then in the last James Bond, Dying can wait.
She thus joins the circle ofjames bond girls“, but in a modernized version, far from the stooges of certain opuses. In a scene of about ten minutes, in Cuba, Ana de Armas plays a CIA agent knocking out her opponents, in a split skirt and high heels.
Proof of her eclecticism, she also plays well with Olivier Assayas (Cuban Network) than with Adrian Lyne, the author of 9 1/2 weeks and Fatal Liaisonusing his power of seduction against his then-companion Ben Affleck in the forgettable erotic thriller Deep Waterson Amazon Prime.

But it is undoubtedly his performance in Blonde hair, the Marilyn Monroe biopic, which could make her pass definitively into another dimension. A role that she explains having prepared by dozens of hours of reading. In the first images unveiled from the film, the resemblance is staggering, at the cost of countless makeup sessions.

“I wanted to capture her essence, her spirit, to understand why she spoke like that rather than copying her“, explained Ana de Armas. She had to work even more particularly on the voice, she who retains a slight accent in English because, unlike her previous roles, Marilyn Monroe is “a real person, an icon with a very particular voice“.

Blonde hair by Andrew Dominik, with Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale on Netflix