Newly single Ana de Armas, in an interview with The Sunday Times, revealed how difficult it was to learn Marilyn Monroe’s breathy voice for her upcoming role portraying the Hollywood icon in Blonde.
“I tried!” the Bond actress said. “It only took me nine months of dialect coaching, and practicing, and some ADR sessions. It was a big torture, so exhausting. My brain was fried.”
The Cuban actress nabbed the lead role in 2019 and stars as the titular “Blonde,” an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name. De Armas will play Marilyn Monroe in a fictitious portrait of the actress throughout the ’50s and ’60s, but told through the modern lens of celebrity and pop culture.
“I had a lot of thoughts as a woman in the industry, and even in general, about how things from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s are so relatable to nowadays,” she said. “And how if you don’t have a strong base, with your family and so on, it’s really hard to make it through–really hard.”
De Armas most recently made headlines when the announcement that her quarantine romance with Deep Water co-star Ben Affleck had ended. The Sunday Times interview took place before the split, and the actress reflected briefly on one of Affleck’s obsessions from her hometown in Cuba.
Affleck, who speaks Spanish fluently, was photographed wearing several Spanish-language shirts throughout their relationship. “I also have these T-shirts,” said de Armas. “I just use them more at home, but Ben has become obsessed with them. Every time we go, he buys the whole store.”
Though the two have only been broken up for a week or two, a source spoke to Page Six and claims they still speak everyday. We may never know if that is indeed true, but with a press days kicking off soon for the film they worked on, I guess we will soon see if this breakup is permanent.