Blonde director Andrew Dominik has responded to backlash over the film’s “exploitation” of the late Marilyn Monroe.
The controversial Netflix movie is about the “tumultuous private life” of the iconic 1950’s sex symbol and the “price she paid for fame”.
Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Andrew said he was “really pleased” that the fictional take on Marilyn’s life “outraged so many people”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he blamed the response on U.S. audiences, stating: “They hated the movie!”
“Now we’re living in a time where it’s important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman. That’s what they want to see. And if you’re not showing them that, it upsets them.”
“Which is kind of strange, because she’s dead. The movie doesn’t make any difference in one way or another. What they really mean is that the film exploited their memory of her, their image of her, which is fair enough. But that’s the whole idea of the movie.”
“It’s trying to take the iconography of her life and put it into service of something else, it’s trying to take things that you’re familiar with, and turning the meaning inside out. But that’s what they don’t want to see.”
After Blonde was released on Netflix in September, people took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the movie.
The general consensus was that Ana de Armas gave an “Oscar-worthy” performance as the late star; however, the film itself didn’t do justice to Marilyn Monroe.
One Twitter user wrote: “Ana de Armas‘s performance in Blonde is a tragedy, because clearly she went above and beyond to transform into Marilyn, but the film doesn’t respect that. She is stuck in a loop after a while with one manic episode after another when she and Marilyn both deserved so much better.”
A second said: “Ana de Armas’s phenomenal performance as Marilyn Monroe deserved to be in a MUCH better film, and one that actually respects the icon she’s portraying :(.”
A third penned: “Blonde could have been a good movie if they didn’t sexualise Marilyn Monroe in that way. Why is everyone hell bent on ruining Marilyn‘s original story? It’s genuinely sad and an insult to her. But no hate to Ana de Armas – her acting was amazing.”
Amid the backlash, model Emily Ratajkowski accused the movie of “fetishizing female pain.”
Blonde is available to stream on Netflix now.
