Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, has stirred adverse reactions since its release, forcing director Andrew Dominik to step forward to address the backlash. While attending the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, the 55-year-old shared his take on the negative impression his movie left on people, admitting he found it pleasing.
According to him, many found his Marilyn Monroe biopic unpleasant and upsetting because it presented the legendary actress as something short of an empowered woman. Speaking to Hollywood Reporter, the director noted that the US audience had the worst adverse reaction so far and even hated the movie for depicting a legend like Marilyn in a non-celebratory light. He divulged:
“Now we’re living in a time where it’s important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman. That’s what they want to see. And if you’re not showing them that, it upsets them.”
Andrew Dominik Reacts To Allegations Of Exploiting Marilyn Monroe On Blonde
Notably, many viewers have taken their displeasure about the biopic to extremes, even claiming it exploited the iconic actress. However, Andrew Dominik deems such notions strange because the heroine Ana de Armas portrayed on Blonde was already dead. Hence, portraying her struggles as it was rather than reinventing them as a vehicle for modern empowerment made no difference. He divulged:
“What they really mean is that the film exploited their memory of her. Their image of her, which is fair enough. But that’s the whole ide of the movie. It’s trying to take the iconography of her life and put it into service of something else. It’s trying to take things that you’re familiar with and turning the meaning inside out. But that’s what they don’t want to see.
Despite the public perception of Blonde, Andrew Dominik was, in fact, pleased the movie outraged so many people. To him, offending his audience to wrench them out of complacency was his responsibility as a director. Going further, the new Zealand-born writer claimed most American movies of late were becoming more conservative, like bedtime stories. Hence, any deviation would expectedly cause an adverse reaction. However, he aimed to deviate from that norm with more times-defying movies like Blonde, which spotlighted Ana de Armas. And by the number of viewers the film attracted on streaming platforms, he seems on the right track.