Ana de Armas disagrees with Blonde‘s NC-17 rating. The Netflix star spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the fervor surrounding the Marilyn Monroe biopic. In the conversation, the actress explained that she felt there were many projects that are more explicit than the movie they filmed. Most of those didn’t get an NC-17 rating. Filmmaker Andrew Dominik had a unique vision for the story of the iconic actress. He would not be denied when chasing the dream of bringing it to audiences. Netflix was glad to help and the resulting controversy has helped raise the profile of this project considerably. Check out what she had to say about the situation down below.
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“I didn’t understand why that happened. I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than Blonde,” she explained. “But to tell this story it is important to show all these moments in Marilyn’s life that made her end up the way that she did. It needed to be explained. Everyone [in the cast] knew we had to go to uncomfortable places. I wasn’t the only one.”
Dominik actually told The Playlist that he was surprised with the MPAA’s decision to rate the film NC-17. The filmmaker acknowledged that it was their job to inform viewers, but thinks that it might have hindered getting the project to the finish line.
“Yeah, that was a bit of a surprise, that it got that rating,” Dominik began. “It was really #MeToo that allowed Blonde to happen. It was a gold moment where you had to believe a woman’s perspective no matter what. Whereas before I think people were really uncomfortable with how Blonde portrayed certain American sacred cows. And then it became a gold moment where it didn’t matter if they were sacred cows or not, and that’s why it got made, what allowed it to happen in the end.”
“Here’s the thing, though, it’s not like I’m unsympathetic to their point of view, you know? NC-17 is not a good thing for your film to have, you can’t be on certain billboards and you can’t advertise on certain things and there are all kinds of restrictions that get put on you cause of that rating,” he remembered. “So, to get an NC-17 is not good, you know, and it’s not something that I wanted the film to have. Also, I don’t think it’s something that the film deserves, it’s not really reflective of community standards, I think it’s more of a political thing.”
“Well, Blonde is going to have some kind of theatrical release,” Dominik continued. “I mean, you can’t have a billboard, and…what I don’t understand is why Netflix signed to the MPAA signatory anyway. I mean, there must be some advantage. I just can’t understand why anyone would put themselves under that censorship if they didn’t have to, but… you know, truthfully, I probably shouldn’t speculate on that stuff cause I don’t really [know enough about it.]”
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