Ana de Armas took to hosting Saturday Night Live for her upcoming movie Ghosted where she plays an action-packed spy to Chris Evans as her damsel in distress. To get fans talking about the movie, she headed to Saturday Night Live with musical guest Karol G and gave us a pretty solid show overall. Which all started with her monologue! Starting out in Spanish, de Armas focused her monologue on moving from Cuba when she was in her 20s to explore acting and how she learned English and the business before she got her big break.
Many know de Armas from movies like Knives Out, No Time to Die, and more recently Blonde which secured her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Which she rightfully brought up. But how did she learn to audition for roles? By going to a class that she said was most definitely a scam but one that taught her that sometimes there are words in English with multiple meanings. Like "beg" in the way of "I beg your pardon."
She shared that the first time she saw that, she thought they were literally begging and it took another one of her classmates doing it for her to realize that it was an expression and no one was actually begging someone else. It was a cute way to have de Armas tell a story about her life and get her nerves out because she was a natural during the sketches!
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Another thing that de Armas said she used to watch to help her when she first moved to the United States was the show Friends. It is not an uncommon story. For many around the world, the show that helped them learn English was Friends. It's a mix of reasons, many being that the explanation of common phrases that aren't exactly what they mean are often explained to the audience because of the character Joey Tribbiani's lack of understanding of them. So it is a gateway into understanding phrases that are common to native English speakers but not as easy to understand to those first learning English.
Now, de Armas is far from the first actor to say that a show helped them learn English and probably far from the first to say that it was Friends that helped. The phenomenon started in the 90s and the show continues to help individuals learn English. It was relatable and a sweet look into de Armas' life when she first moved to the United States. Her monologue was so honest and sweet that it was one of those moments where you related to the host and it just made for a great viewing experience overall. Check out de Armas' opening monologue below: