Marilyn Monroe is one of Hollywood’s most famous faces, but Netflix’s new movie Blonde images the person underneath all the glamour. The first trailer for the film, which stars Ana de Armas (Knives Out) as Marilyn, debuted on Thursday, showing the trials and tribulations of the star grappling with her own fame. Blonde is set to be released Netflix on Sept. 28.
The trailer seems to have a, now familiar, biopic set up of Marilyn remembering her life just before she goes on stage for some big performance. We get flashes of some of Monroe’s most famous and iconic moments and photos, as well as some narration of de Armas.
One thing that’s particularly notable about Netflix’s movie is that it’s an adaptation of a Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, rather than a standard retelling of Monroe’s life. In other words, it’s a frequently fictionalized account of the life of Norma Jean, adding plenty of salacious details that only exist in rumor in the real world — if they exist at all.
This method of scandalous retelling is part of why the movie has earned its NC-17 rating for Netflix. This rating is rarely used by mainstream movies because there are strict laws around how these movies can be advertised, but that’s not really a problem for Netflix.
Blonde is written and directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Along with de Armas, the movie will also star Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood), Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Scoot McNairy (Argo), and Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man).
