“Blonde” will not be suitable for minors: the film about Marilyn Monroe will be released without cuts or filters

After months of rumors, it was confirmed that Blonde, the film about Marilyn Monroe starring Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time to Die) and directed by Andrew Dominick, will not be suitable for children under 17. On March 23, the Motion Pictures Association (MPA) published its most recent list of ratings, and the production based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates was given that of NC-17 for its “sexual content”.

While it will be released in movie theaters, the free version of the life of the American icon will have a hybrid release: it will also go to Netflix, the platform that produced it. From that point of view it is debatable whether the most feared rating in Hollywood will have any serious impact on the commercial outcome.

The truth is that it will be the first Netflix original production to receive an NC-17, although the platform has smoothly transmitted other titles so considered by the MPA, such as La vida de Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Color) and Shame: without reservation, and productions which in the United States are considered for adult audiences only (TV-MA).

The controversy began when Dominik, a New Zealand director recognized for Killing Them Softly (Killing Them Softly) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, was shocked that Netflix “insisted” on changing the film's final cut, for which he proposed that Jennifer Lame, editor of El legacy of the devil (Hereditary, by Ari Aster) to join the creative team and “reduce the excesses” of Blonde.

“It's a film that demands something from the public,” Dominik said, annoyed. “If the public doesn't like it, it's the bloody problem of the public. We are not running for office in the state.”

He continued to shout: “It's a film not suitable for minors about Marilyn Monroe, I'd say that's what you'd want, right? I'd like to go and see the unchild-friendly version of Marilyn Monroe's story.” On the rumors that circulated regarding the nature of sexual content — “a pile of crap”, he called them — he only confirmed that Blonde includes, like the novel on which it is based, a scene in which rape is shown.

The film, which should have been presented at past film festivals such as Cannes, Venice or Sundance, was delayed by the intention of controlling the final cut that Netflix showed. Finally, the platform agreed that it would remain as its author had conceived it, without cuts or filters. Dominik acknowledged that he feels nothing but “gratitude” for Netflix, as they supported his work even with reservations about the content. “It's much easier to endorse something when you like it. It's a lot harder when you don't like it.”

Although Blonde does not yet have a release date, it can be inferred that it will probably not be released after August 4, when it marks 60 years since Monroe's death.

Although Cuban De Armas spent nine months practicing the accent of the American actress and icon, some scenes required ADR, automatic dialogue replacement, an additional audio recording technique. Also annoyed that this was revealed, Dominik remarked: “If no one is going to complain about something, it's about his performance.”

The realization of this project has been going on for many years — the first purchase of film rights to the novel dates back to 2010 and in 2001 CBS released a television version — and the central role had Naomi Watts and Jessica Chastain as candidates, until De Armas won it in 2019. They accompany her in the roles of husbands Adrien Brody (The Pianist) as Arthur Miller and Bobby Cannavale (Nine Perfect Strangers) as Joe DiMaggio, and in that of Marilyn's mother, Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown).

Also in the cast are Caspar Phillipson who, like Jackie, will be John F. Kennedy; Xavier Samuel (Love & Friendship) as Charles Chaplin's son, Evan Williams (Versailles) as Edward G. Robinson's son, David Warshofsky (Now You See Me) as the producer Darryl F. Zanuck and Michael Masini (Modern Family) as Tony Curtis, among others.

Blonde “tells the story of how childhood trauma shapes an adult who is torn between a public and a private self,” Dominik said, when rumors began about Netflix's disappointment when he saw that the film, imagined for the Oscars, was an author's work. “It's basically the story of every human being,” he explained. “It's basically the story of every human being, but it uses a certain sense of association that we have with something very familiar, just because of the exposure in the media.”

Oates saw a preliminary version and revealed that Dominik's work was “striking, brilliant, very disturbing and (perhaps most surprisingly) a totally feminist interpretation”. He celebrated the work of the actress and added that the atmosphere of this adaptation of her novel makes it “difficult to classify: not surreal, but not totally realistic; not horror but steeped in terror”.

Netflix is also about to release The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: the Untold Tapes, a new documentary about the death of the actress of One Eve and Two Adams (Some Like it Hot), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seventh Year Itch. With the slogan “the brighter the star, the darker the truth”, it is directed by Emma Cooper and produced by Library Films (Tiger King: Murder) by Chris Smith.

The feature, which will be available on April 27, will explore the circumstances surrounding what was considered a “probable suicide” in 1962, when Monroe suffered a fatal overdose at age 36. Its mix of archival material and dramatic reconstructions does not contain unreleased materials from the star or the police investigation, but rather unknown recordings of people close to Marylyn to offer “a new perspective on the night of her death.”

Conspiracy theories about the end of Monroe and its link to President Kennedy have been more than abundant, and Cooper chose the perspective of a journalistic investigation to reexamine the days leading up to the body's appearance in the home in Brentwood, a suburb west of Los Angeles. Its production follows another, which CNN aired in January, with narration from Chastain: Reframed Marilyn Monroe, a four-episode series.

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