Ana de Armas Says Oscar Nomination for Playing Marilyn Monroe Felt 'Surreal' (Exclusive)

The actress spoke to PEOPLE about playing the screen icon at the premiere of her new movie Ghosted

Ana de Armas is still getting over the reaction to her performance in Blonde.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the Ghosted premiere in New York City on Tuesday, the actress reflected back on the critical acclaim she's received for playing Marilyn Monroe in the movie — including a 2023 Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

"It felt amazing. It was so special," de Armas, 34, tells PEOPLE. "Not only the Oscars, it was all those awards, that they just gave the performance that recognition. I feel like I've, for so long, waited for the movie to come out. It was such a beautiful, full-circle... I will always remember. It was pretty surreal."

Monroe was just 36 when she died in 1962. Speaking with AnOther magazine in September 2022, de Armas revealed she left a handwritten note on the iconic star's grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles during the first day of production on Blonde.

"We got this big card and everyone in the crew wrote a message to her. Then we went to the cemetery and put it on her grave," she said. "We were asking for permission in a way."

Related:Ana de Armas Left Letter on Marilyn Monroe's Grave to Ask for 'Permission' Before Blonde

As for the dedication to her role in the action romance Ghosted, de Armas revealed what it was like to level up on the physical intensity by performing her own stunts.

"You know, I commit. Whatever I'm doing, whatever job I'm doing, I just go for it, and I really like to do my best," she tells PEOPLE at the Lincoln Center premiere, admitting she "wasn't feeling it" at the beginning of the project. "It was kind of like... I'm very picky. I'm very demanding with myself. So, I just went for it. It was exhausting."

"An action film is very demanding," she adds. "But you have to do it, and it's very rewarding too, at the end, to watch the take on the monitor and feel like 'I nailed that one. That was a good one.' It's really cool."

Related:Chris Evans and Ana de Armas Joke About Finally Getting to 'Like Each Other' in Ghosted (Exclusive)

Ghosted sees de Armas team up with Chris Evans, 41, for the third time. Speaking to PEOPLE on April 18, she revealed that filming romance and comedy with the Captain America star came "easy" as a result.

"The fun, the romance, the conversations and all of that, it comes very natural for Chris and I, and it was just very easy," she explained. "The chemistry's there and there's nothing forced. That part was good."

"We check on each other and we text dog pictures," she added about their off-set friendship.

Evans, meanwhile, added that de Armas "never stops working."

"She's just right onto the next one. Meanwhile, I disappear into Massachusetts," he joked.

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Evans and de Armas first worked together on 2019's murder mystery Knives Out, where he played the villain opposite her innocent protagonist. They then reconnected on the set of The Gray Man (2022), where Evans again took on the role of the villain opposite de Armas' faithful sidekick character, Dani.

Having reunited in Ghosted, Evans tells PEOPLE in this week's issue they were eager to explore a new dynamic with each other. They finally got to "like each other" onscreen, jokes de Armas, 34.

RELATED VIDEO: Chris Evans and Ana de Armas Joke About Finally Getting to 'Like Each Other' in Ghosted (Exclusive)

"It was nice, with this movie we finally got to interact in a more playful, banter-y sort of way," says Evans. "In Knives Out we're obviously adversarial. The second film, Gray Man, we didn't have anything together, so this was fun to actually get to have some repartee and explore that type of movie."

In the movie, Evans plays Cole, an everyday farmer who enjoys a spectacular first date with art curator Sadie (de Armas). After she ghosts him, Cole comes up with the grand plan to surprise her in London — only to discover she's a secret agent when she saves him from assassins and kicks off a global mission to save the world.

"I thought it was very refreshing and new and unexpected for people to see Chris in this position of not being the one in control and strong and saving the day," says de Armas. "For me, it was a lot of fun — a lot of work and a lot to do, but it was really cool."

Adds Evans, "That's what I liked about the movie. It's so fun to be the eyes of the audience and react how they would — or at least how I assume most of the audience would, certainly how I would — to panic and be relatively incapable. The more human you respond, the funnier it is."

Ghosted begins streaming on Apple TV+ Friday.

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