Ana de Armas' NC-17 Marilyn Monroe Movie Praised By Original Author

screenrant.com:

Blonde author Joyce Carol Oates praises Netflix's NC-17-rated Marilyn Monroe biopic starring Ana de Armas. Oates published the fictionalized biography in 2000, which traces the life of Norma Jeane Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe, from a small-town American girl to a Hollywood starlet, encompassing the many trials and tribulations of that journey. Director Andrew Dominik took on the new adaptation of Blonde for Netflix, which is the first of their original content to garner an NC-17 rating.

CBS adapted Blonde in 2001 as a mini-series, which starred Poppy Montgomery as Monroe, which was a less controversial take on Oates' material than what Dominik has produced. The director has been vocal about the difficulty in delivering the film to Netflix with his vision intact, although he has praised the streamer for standing by his take on Blonde, rather than having him edit it down to an R-rating. Dominik has said that «There’s something in it to offend everyone» inBlonde and has stood by the rating, even though he disagrees with it, saying,«It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right?»

Related: Blonde: What The Marilyn Monroe Netflix Adaptation Needs To Get Right

Oates has now seen Dominik's cut of Blonde and given her reaction to it (via Collider), saying that she believes the director «succeeded» in bringing her novel to life faithfully. She went on to say that she believes the director «immersed himself» in the perspective of Marilyn Monroe, avoiding the pitfalls of showing her life from the outside looking in. At over 700 pages, the novel is one of Oates' most ambitious works, which was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a daunting task to adapt into a feature-length film, but it appears Dominik