Adrien Brody Shares His Thoughts On Playing Arthur Miller In Blonde Alongside Ana de Armas

Blonde starring Ana de Armas in the role of Hollywood icon Marylin Monroe has been one of the most controversial releases of this year, as it has been greatly loved by some but thoroughly disliked by others. At the Venice Film Festival, the film received a 14-minute-long standing ovation but critics and fans have been thoroughly polarized in their reviews of the film.

Now, actor Adrien Brody has come forward to give his opinion on the film. Adrien plays the character of Arthur Miller in the film. Arthur Miller was a playwright who was married to Marylin Monroe from 1956 to 1961.

Adrien Brody said that the film is, “really brave storytelling. … I think it’s important in a lot of ways because although it is harsh to experience, sometimes that brings greater understanding, and I think there’s a lot of positivity in that. … I don’t think there’s been a universal sense of empathy for [Monroe]. There’s been a lot of love and adulation, but I don’t think it’s empathetic.”

Additionally, he said that the film, “is really about a woman whose childhood traumas and all of these ongoing hardships have affected her life and her choices, both personally and professionally, and how she has to endure that. And her mental health, right? — which is completely untreated and not addressed and very sad.”

Blonde is not based on the actual accurate account of Monroe’s life but rather a fictional retelling based on the Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name.

In the film, Monroe and Miller meet at the audition of one of Miller’s plays and Monroe surprises him with his literary knowledge. Of the interaction, Brody said that he acknowledges the interaction is not how the real first meeting would have gone but it gave them a chance to, “encapsulate all of the flaws and thinking that are so kind of pervasive … that are oppressive to her and to him on his own because he’s a very intelligent man; his own awareness of his own inability to see her clearly as a human being; and the real beauty that he sees through that revelation of her intellect and her emotional intelligence.”

He added, “I thought that was such a beautiful reconstruction.”