Netflix has released the trailer for Blonde, the highly anticipated Marilyn Monroe biopic based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name.
The movie, scheduled for release on Netflix on Sept. 23, is directed by Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly) and stars Ana de Armas as the legendary movie star who died of a drug overdose in 1962.
The trailer opens with de Armas as Monroe walking toward a crowd of fans, as an eerie, slow version of the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” plays. It cuts to a scene of a conversation between Monroe and Joe DiMaggio (played by Bobby Cannavale), the baseball legend who would become Monroe’s second husband.
DiMaggio asks Monroe how she got her start in movies. Monroe, looking visibly uncomfortable, responds, “I guess I was discovered.”
The trailer then takes a dark turn, with scenes of Monroe screaming, crashing her car, crying, and standing in a burning room. It ends with Monroe telling DiMaggio, “Marilyn Monroe only exists on the screen.”
Blonde has raised eyebrows even before its release, mostly due to the adults-only NC-17 rating it received from the Motion Picture Association. It’s the first Netflix original movie to get that rating, which is relatively rare for mainstream films.
Oates has given her approval to the film, saying, “Andrew Dominik is a very brilliant director. I think he succeeded in showing the experience of Norma Jeane Baker from her perspective, rather than see it from the outside, the male gaze looking at a woman. He immersed himself in her perspective.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
