Ana de Armas may not wear an actual dress of Marilyn Monroe’s in “Blonde,” but she does a good job of filling her shoes.
That’s based on the first trailer for the upcoming Netflix biopic about the iconic sex symbol, released on Thursday.
The “official teaser” shows de Armas channeling some of Monroe’s most famous moments, including her rendition of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
However, de Armas is not seen singing “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy.
The film’s synopsis describes it as a bold reimagination of the life of “one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons,” from a volatile childhood as Norma Jeane Mortenson, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements.
De Armas told Netflix Queue that director Andrew Dominik told her he wanted the world “to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane.”
She added, “I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”
The film is based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name. De Armas said she prepared for the role by studying “hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, films — anything I could get my hands on.”
Every scene in the film is inspired by an existing photograph, and de Armas said she and Dominik would pore over every detail in each photo and debate what was happening in it.
“The first question was always, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling here?’ We wanted to tell the human side of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible.”
The NC-17 film debuts on the streaming platform Sept. 23, and Dominik told Vulture that it has “something in it to offend everyone.”
You can see the trailer below.