Ana de Armas on Being Cuban and Playing Marilyn Monroe: 'We Can Do Anything' If 'Given the Chance'

Netflix Ana de Armas in Blonde (2022)

Ana de Armas refuses to be put in a box.

In an August cover interview with ELLE, the actress touches on her role as Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's upcoming Blonde, which earned an NC-17 rating and "boldly reimagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, exploring the split between her public and private selves," according to an official synopsis.

Discussing playing a fictionalized version of Monroe as a Latina woman, de Armas, 34, said, "I do want to play Latina. But I don't want to put a basket of fruit on my head every single time."

"So that's my hope, that I can show that we can do anything if we're given the time to prepare, and if we're given just the chance, just the chance," she added. "You can do any film — Blonde — you can do anything."

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PHOTOGRAPHED BY: CHRISTIAN MACDONALD Ana de Armas on the cover of Elle

RELATED: Blonde Director Says Ana de Armas-Starring Film About Marilyn Monroe Will "Offend Everyone"

"The problem is that sometimes you don't even get to the room with the director to sit down and prove yourself," said The Gray Man actress.

Touching on diversity in film, de Armas, who is Cuban, said, "It's definitely changing; it's getting better. But it's hard to know now, being in my position, because I know it's not the same for everybody."

She added, "And I feel like it's coming from filmmakers, that diversity has become a must. You have to do the right thing. Thank God."

A teaser trailer for Blonde dropped last month, showing flashes of de Armas' Monroe onstage and in front of cameras, recreating the breezy white-dress moment over a New York City subway grate.

"Please come. Don't abandon me," a crying de Armas says in front of a mirror in her dressing room at the start of the trailer, which debuted June 16.

De Armas previously told Netflix Queue that writer/director Andrew Dominik's "ambitions were very clear from the start: to present a version of Marilyn Monroe's life through her lens."

She added, "He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen."

The actress spent two to three hours getting hair and makeup done for the film, according to Netflix Queue, and de Armas did plenty more research leading up to the film shoot.

Said de Armas, "Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible."

The movie's cast also features Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.

Blonde premieres Sept. 23 on Netflix.