Arguably one of the most anticipated films of 2022 is Blonde from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Mindhunter director Andrew Dominik. Blonde, based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, played by Ana de Armas, has been a passion project for years for Dominik, who originally wrote the script back in 2008. Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote the book of the same name on which Blonde was based, said that she has seen a rough cut and called it “startling, brilliant” and “very disturbing,” also saying it’s “an utterly ‘feminist’ interpretation… not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything this.” With high praise from the book’s writer, and a cast that also includes Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, and Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio, Blonde is clearly going to be a film not to miss when it comes to Netflix later this year.
Collider’s Steven Weintraub recently spoke with Dominik about this project he’s been working on for over a decade, when audiences will likely first see the film, what the film is about, how it handles Monroe’s legacy, and how Blonde will compare to Dominik’s other films.
Dominik stated that Blonde finished filming in July 2021, and that this highly-anticipated film has been done for a while now. Dominik said, “I guess it could have gone to Venice last year. It could have come out in the sort of fall crop last year, but…it took a while to cut it. All my films take a while to cut.” While Blonde missed Venice last year, Dominik says that we will hopefully see the film at the festival this year: “The idea is it goes to Venice now, so what’s that, September?"
Thankfully, that cut will be exactly what Dominik wants to see, as he states, “Netflix are letting me release the movie I wanted to make, and even with the NC-17 rating, I think that’s pretty good.” Considering Dominik also talked with Collider about his “better version” of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford that still hasn’t been released, it’s great that Netflix is allowing him to put out the film he wants.
When asked what Blonde is, Dominik responded, “Blonde is a movie for all the unloved children of the world. It’s like Citizen Kane and Raging Bull had a baby daughter.” Dominik further expanded on Blonde, saying:
“Well, the whole idea of Blonde was to detail a childhood drama and then show the way in which that drama splits the adults into a public and private self. And how the adult sees the world through the lens of that childhood drama, and it’s sort of a story of a person whose rational picture of the world as being overwhelmed by her unconscious, and it uses the iconography of Marilyn Monroe.”
Dominik continued about Blonde, stating:
“It uses all the imagery that you have seen of Marilyn Monroe, the films, photographs of her life. But it changes the meaning of all those things in accordance with her internal drama. So it’s sort of a movie about the unconscious in a way. And it’s a tragedy. It’s sort of like an unwanted child who becomes the most wanted woman in the world and has to deal with all of the desire that is directed at her, and how confusing that is. It’s kind of a nightmare. It’s about being in a car with no brakes. It’s just going faster and faster and faster.”
But it also seems like over the course of several years of living with Blonde, the ideas for this project have also been coming faster and faster. Dominik also talked about how Blonde kept building with more and more great ideas, saying:
“It’s just some ideas just keep on giving. Some ideas just have ideas, like I always just have ideas for Blonde. I just think about Blonde all the time. I mean, there’s other shit that you can do and you just can’t be fucked thinking about it. It’s boring. Or you think about it for a while, “wow, this is good,” and then you get bored with it, but Blonde never did. It’s probably because the story is connected somehow to how I’m personally wounded, do you know what I mean? And I think the would is kind of the source of all that stuff. It’s the source of what moves you creatively. So I don’t know, mate, I mean, I’ve just been obsessed with it for years.”
Even though Dominik seems to be brimming with ideas for Blonde and excited to talk about this upcoming film, there’s still something things Dominik is keeping secret. When asked how long Blonde actually is, he responded, “Mate, that’s like asking a woman her age.”
Blonde is scheduled to be released later this year on Netflix. Also, keep an eye out for our extended interview with Dominik on Collider soon.