Netflix Shares Trailer for NC-17 Marilyn Monroe Biopic ‘Blonde’

Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for Blonde, the Marilyn Monroe biopic starring Ana de Armas.

The dramatic look at the film, which hits the streaming service on Sept. 23, showcases de Armas as the Hollywood icon and the troubled personal life she led. Directed and written by Andrew Dominik, whose last narrative feature was 2012’s Killing Them Softly, the trailer teases Monroe’s high-profile romances and the drug addiction that followed her career. 

The film is notable for being the first original Netflix production to be rated NC-17, which was reportedly a topic of contention between Dominik and the company. In an interview with ScreenDaily in February, however, he noted he has “nothing but gratitude” for the streamer, even if it “insisted” on hiring editor Jennifer Lame to “curb the excesses of the movie.” The rating is due to sexual content. 

“It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem,” Dominik said. “It’s not running for public office.”

Blonde also stars Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio, Xavier Samuel as Charles Chaplin Jr., Julianne Nicholson as Gladys Pearl Baker, and Caspar Phillipson as John F. Kennedy. In a Netflix Queue interview last month, de Armas said Dominik “wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane. I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”