Ana de Armas

"Blonde" Makeup and hair crew on how they transformed Ana de Armas into Marilyn Monroe.

“The gray is painted into their hair to make them more distinguished.” She adds, “There are silvery streaks painted in, and when you look at the original, you think, ‘Why would they do that?’ So we had to copy that.” In recreating “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Kerwin mixed a fuchsia lip with red. Says Kerwin, “We needed something sturdy that could hold up with the gluing and ungluing of wigs.” “It changed the eye shape,” Kerwin explains. It gave us a chance to figure out what worked better in black and white as opposed to color,” explains Kerwin. The shoot session was done before principal filming began, and it helped immensely since they would have to recreate many of Monroe’s most iconic moments.

Ana de Armas completely transforms into Marilyn Monroe in the film 'Blonde.' The hair, makeup, and costume departments tell ELLE.com how it was done.

Even with all the costume changes, Johnson says it felt like de Armas wore those vintage check pants daily, and since there was only one pair, she “was praying they were not going to dissolve.” The authentic 1950s garment from [Palace Costume](https://www.palacecostume.com/history) “fit like a glove.” “I have photographs of her that day at the Plan B office, and there’s Marilyn,” she says. Kerwin provided the additional makeup artists with lip palettes they had made to deliver a consistent visual: “We had put in all the orange reds, they had all the blue reds, and so when the background came in, we had mapped out what was going to work for color or black and white.” That is the most important thing to get there and not just stick a costume on her.” One area Johnson decided to ditch early on was padded foundation garments. Gowns, furs, and glamorous on-set ensembles are a fraction of the costume story being told in Blonde, which has a “sense of naturalism” that Johnson notes is the focus of the novel and Dominik’s direction. “They had her on the monitor, and the actual footage [from Some Like It Hot] on the monitor next to it,” McIntosh recalls. The two formats impact the choice of makeup, and the “biggest thing to figure out was the lip colors” because some pop, whereas others fade away. A couple of days of testing was required to “find out what worked, what didn’t and to find our Marilyn in Ana,” says Kerwin about her expressive lashes. During production, they were shaved down by Kerwin and then bleached every couple of days, which took some getting used to [for the star](https://youtu.be/BOa89RpMYf0?t=221): “Ana has beautiful brows, and it was a shock for her to see herself in the newly thinned out blonde brow.” Western Costume cobbler Mauricio Osorio came up with a workaround that required excellent quality shoes to use as a foundation that “Ana loves, are comfortable, and have the correct shape and height.” Johnson turned to The RealReal to get a pair of Manolo Blahniks that are “still quite expensive but saved us from having to make the shoe from the ground up.” The guts of the shoe are still Manolos: “He basically rips the whole shoe apart, takes the top off, and rips the leather off the heel. Using prosthetics instead of a bald cap “so we could see scalp through the wigs.” Kerwin explains that after applying the prosthetic pieces, “it was all airbrushed to be the same color, and then the blonde wigs would sit on what was looking like skin.” It is here that Monroe’s hair was dyed its famous shade (ditto Lucille Ball’s signature hue) and this snapshot of Tinseltown was the first stop on “Team Marilyn’s train.” As well as recreating images, Dominik also shot on location at Monroe’s famous haunts, including Musso and Frank’s and the house she shared with Arthur Miller.

Andrew Dominik's adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel is a morbid, leering and tasteless abasement.

This goes double during a scene when Monroe is filming the subway-grate shot in “The Seven Year Itch,” during which his camera lingers and leers with unsavory insistence. There are short clips of her work in such classics as “All About Eve,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Some Like It Hot,” but Dominik never allows de Armas to convey her character’s exquisite comic timing, superb physical grace or shrewdness. She certainly deserves more than a dumb “Blonde.” That scene ends with a rape that can’t help but conjure images of Harvey Weinstein and the “casting couch” tradition he so brutally perpetuated. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson), who features in one of the film’s many tasteless scenes, in this case of Monroe performing oral sex while he watches a rocket launch on TV. The rest of “Blonde” continues apace, with Monroe encountering creepy, dismissive or outright violent men who continually underestimate and betray her.

Transforming Ana de Armas into Marilyn Monroe for Netflix's new biopic Blonde was a team effort. Here's how Tina Roesler Kerwin, Jennifer Johnson, ...

There’s a humor and a whims whimsy to his costumes and a lightness to the spirit of his designs. We were trying to figure out how William Travilla made that moment work in a column dress with a big bow on the back and we learned that when he was working on the dress, he borrowed pool table fabric from the art department at Fox Studios next door. He got a bolt of green felt and backed the dress with that. I actually haven't seen the dress since we made the film in 2019 and I would love to look at it again because I think that it's probably a bit garish in person. Also wearing pants was really important in the movie, so your gaze would be taken away from her body and would be really placed on her interior—on her mental workings, on her intellect, on her psychological state. So I was able to push it a little bit further than Tina was because I didn't have those restrictions." Jamie-Leigh would also help sell some of the more casual looks with the movement and the wave of the hair." Finding that shape, that texture and that hairstyle was a challenge." You still want it to have the hold and the style without losing the softness, so it can look touchable." But overall, very little product because the more product that's in the hair, the more it can tend to start looking helmet-y and not move naturally. The blonde wig did not work on Ana’s hair so I had to put three prosthetic pieces underneath the wigs to give her a half bald cap so that the blonde wigs looked like they were actually sitting on skin. There are so many different Marilyns, so we needed to find a baseline, an image that you see most of her.

The fictional biopic of Marilyn Monroe has steadily accumulated its fair share of controversy--and now you can see for yourself what the buzz has been ...

She also recently discussed the future of the James Bond series, saying [Bond should not be played by a woman](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-is-no-need-for-female-bond-ana-de-armas-says/1100-6505704/). [Empire](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/marilyn-monroe-movie-blonde-create-controversy-says-ana-de-armas-exclusive/) over the summer, "It's a film that is supposed to create controversy and discomfort." "It's supposed to make you think about what happened--and what is still happening," de Armas said. It tells the story of how a woman, Norma Jeane Baker, became the incredibly popular celebrity Marilyn Monroe in the '50s and '60s. The movie is not a traditional biopic however, as it blurs the lines between fact and fiction, Netflix said. Netflix's Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde, which stars Ana de Armas in the lead role, is now available to stream.

Costume designer Jennifer Johnson explains how her team re-created Marilyn Monroe's wardrobe for Ana de Armas's costumes in Netflix's Blonde.

"It's easy enough to copy something verbatim, it's another thing to bring something so iconic that is imbued in the world's psyche back from the dead. But she made an exception for diamonds, as all of Monroe's jewelry was real. In terms of her style point of view, Monroe was a minimalist. Award-winning costume designer [Jennifer Johnson](http://www.jenniferjohnsoncostume.com/) ("I, Tonya") re-created Monroe's iconic outfits with the help of patternmaker Jose Bello at [Western Costume](https://www.westerncostume.com/). "Getting the construction details just right was important, but so was being flexible with certain details and fabric choices to work for Ana," Johnson tells POPSUGAR. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.

Andrew Dominik adapts Joyce Carol Oates' novel, Blonde, for the big screen, telling a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe's life, from her troubled ...

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Ana de Armas' performance in "Blonde" could get an Oscar nomination for best actress, and be the only Latino representation in the race, if it can survive ...

[ADAPTED SCREENPLAY](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-adapted-screenplay-predictions-1235327856) [ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-original-screenplay-predictions-1235327855) [SUPPORTING ACTRESS](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-supporting-actress-predictions-1235327853/) [SUPPORTING ACTOR](https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-supporting-actor-predictions-1235327852) Billie Holiday” (2021) and Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger for “Judy” (2019). [Netflix](https://variety.com/t/netflix/) may throw its full weight behind De Armas, who has emerged as the streamer‘s leading contender for major acting attention.

The brand new Netflix movie 'Blonde' stars Ana de Armas and features some very explicit, NSFW scenes. The film is directed by Andrew Dominik...

I knew exactly what was going to be seen, what was not going to be seen, and it felt like it was the right thing to do”. It was just a part of a whole story…I knew exactly what the shot was going to be. “I understood what I was doing and I felt very protected and safe,” she told the publication, adding, “I didn’t feel exploited because I was in control.

Blonde star Ana de Armas spent two and a half hours in hair and makeup each day to play famed Hollywood actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe.

The movie has been the subject of much interest in the months leading up to its release due to de Armas' popularity, the well-known figure at its center, and the much-discussed NC-17 rating. [Variety](https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/ana-de-armas-transformation-marilyn-monroe-blonde-movie-1235377281/), detailing how they transformed de Armas for the film, which took two and a half hours each day. Since breaking out in the much-adored mystery Knives Out in 2019, de Armas has evolved into a bona fide star.

Ana de Armas mesmerizes as the tortured icon in 'Blonde,' a relentless telling of Marilyn Monroe's life that will challenge viewers.

This is a horror film of sorts and like a horror film, this is about what viewers will tolerate. Adding to the length is the loose narrative. Is it fair to the source material? As tough as it is to watch, so much worked for me in this film. Perhaps the simple solution to present the film’s ideas was to base it on a fully fictional character that only reminds viewers of Monroe – even if that would defeat the director’s intentions. That is why this film is not a failure. From a technical standpoint the film is very strong. This is a situation where the gaze of a female director (even in an advisory role) could have benefited the film as a whole. It is surprisingly effective, injecting creepy, surreal, and unsettling moments that alter the interpretation on what would otherwise be considered glamorous. With that said, I have a hard time believing that the same person buying the Marilyn Monroe Funko Pop figurine and Christmas ornaments is (or ever will be) ready for what is delivered on screen. While de Armas’ work in the film is so mesmerizing it begs you not to look away, the film’s graphic content seems to hold Marilyn Monroe, the viewers, and even the actress captive. I only learned post viewing that this film not only blurs the line between fiction and fact, it often erases it, leaving viewers to fend for themselves when determining what your takeaway will be.

Ana de Armas absolutely shines in her role as Marilyn Monroe in new Netflix film, Blonde. Have you ever wondered how much the actress is worth?

The 34-year-old Cuban and Spanish actress began her career in Cuba. If you haven’t watched the film yet, I really recommend it just so you can see how amazing de Armas is in the role. The talented actress has embodied her so well, she deserves all the praise!