Is any other 2022 film as highly anticipated as Andrew Dominik‘s “Blonde“? After 15 years of development, and its production announced in 2016, the film premieres at the Venice Film Festival in September. And audiences won’t wait much longer to see it, too, as it hits Netflix on September 23.
Vanity Fair has some new exclusive behind-the-scenes photos to help drum up further hype for the film as it approaches its premiere. And the images show just how much painstaking detail Dominik, star Ana de Armas, and the film’s screw went into to recreate specific scenes from Monroe’s life. For example, one shows Dominik reproducing a famous photo of Monroe and her second husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio, for the film. Another sees de Armas with Adrien Brody, who plays Monroe’s third and final husband, playwright Arthur Miller. And another depicts de Armas’ Monroe with Xavier Samuel as Charlie Chaplin Jr. and Evan Williams as the son of 1950s Hollywood star Edward G. Robinson.
Based on Joyce Carol Oates‘ 2000 novel of the same name, “Blonde” watches Norma Jeane Baker transform into Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe. But Monroe’s world-famous pseudonym cannot change the woman’s psychological scars, as the film explores the drastic contrast between Monroe’s on-screen appearances and her private life. De Armas stars as Monroe, and the further cast includes Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, Caspar Phillipson, and more.
The biggest intrigue of “Blonde” may be that it’s not a conventional biopic. Instead, the film provides an immersion into Monroe’s intense and volatile inner life. “I saw an opportunity to describe an adult life through the lens of mistaken childhood beliefs and trauma,” said Dominik when Vanity Fair asked him why he wanted to make a movie about the actress. As a result, the film boasts an NC-17 rating, the first-ever for a Netflix original film.
So, will “Blonde” live up to all the hype? Based on these new images, the answer is likely yes—the movie is a favorite to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Check out the new behind-the-scenes photos below.
