Ana de Armas Criticizes NC-17 Rating For Marilyn Monroe Film

In an era of gritty realist cinema, it can be hard to find a film without sex, violence and/or drugs, especially if we're talking fictionalized biopics. After all, many of these figures existed during a time when prescription pills were king and Hollywood was just starting to figure out that "sex sells," a concept that was solidified through film legends like Marilyn Monroe. And as a woman whose tragic story of ill-fated romance and addiction has became one of pop culture's most famous cautionary tales about the pitfalls of fame, it only makes sense that her new Netflix film, Blonde, would raise at least a few eyebrow.

However, the actress recently told L'Officielmagazine that she doesn't think that the biopic — which is based on Joyce Carol Oates' 2000 novel of the same name — is salacious enough to have warranted an NC-17 rating for "some sexual content" back in March, saying that she "didn't understand why that happened."

“I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than ‘Blonde,'" de Armas said. "But to tell this story it is important to show all these moments in Marilyn’s life that made her end up the way that she did. It needed to be explained. Everyone [in the cast] knew we had to go to uncomfortable places. I wasn’t the only one.”

That said, de Armas isn't the only person questioning the MPAA's decision, as Blonde director Andrew Dominik also expressed his surprise at the rating in an interview with Vulture, explaining that he "thought we’d colored inside the lines."

“But I think if you’ve got a bunch of men and women in a boardroom talking about sexual behavior, maybe the men are going to be worried about what the women think. It’s just a weird time," he said. "It’s not like depictions of happy sexuality. It’s depictions of situations that are ambiguous. And Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think? I don’t know why."

Dominik added, "They make more porn than anyone else in the world.”

You can read de Armas' entire interview with L'Officiel here.

Photo via Getty / Samir Hussein / WireImage