7 December 2025
Ana de Armas still feels she has to “prove [herself]” as an actress despite her Oscar nomination.
Photo: Getty Images
The 37-year-old star became the first Cuban actress nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the 2022 biographical drama Blonde. Yet she admits some people dismissed the achievement as a “fluke.”
Speaking with director Andrew Dominik at the Red Sea Film Festival this week, she told Variety:
“I get it. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe is very strange. A week of preparation on my own, and my accent was a disaster. Long story short, we managed to convince the producers that I was the right choice. Andrew [Dominik] had been casting that movie for 10 years, and he wouldn’t do it with anyone else. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It was a beautiful, delicious torture.”
She admitted: “Some people feel like it was a fluke, like somehow I just did it. There’s still this kind of feeling of having to prove myself again somehow.”
Ana continued: “But I’ve always been the one looking for what I want to do instead of just waiting for what they have to offer.”
The Ballerina star had only a few days to switch from playing Monroe to CIA agent Paloma in the Bond blockbuster No Time To Die—and she admits a little of the late Hollywood icon lingered in her performance.
She explained: “I finished Blonde on a Friday and started shooting Bond on a Monday. In my first scene in the movie, I started talking like Marilyn. I had 48 hours to say goodbye to a huge character and start the next one. If you look at Paloma, you can see a little bit of Marilyn in her. It was not intentional, but I think it made her even more special.”
Ana jumped at the chance to work with No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga and star alongside Daniel Craig as the suave spy. But most of all, she cherished the opportunity to represent her country—and remains grateful for the doors the franchise opened.
She recalled: “I got a call and he said, ‘I want you to be in the film. It’s a Cuban agent. Are you in?’ I love Cary’s work, I love Daniel Craig, and the Bond franchise. If there’s going to be a Cuban agent in a Bond film, it’s going to be me. I don’t care what it is or for how long. Representing my country was bigger than everything, so I knew I had to trust the process. Those 15 minutes on screen did a lot for me. The reach the franchise has and the love from the audience… And that character, as small as it was, was big. People loved it. When the character says goodbye and gives him a cigar, there was a standing ovation. I will never forget that moment. I got a lot of opportunities because of that role.”
