In the Netflix film ‘Blonde’, Ana De Armas plays Marilyn Monroe. This film is adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’s book of the same name. The book is a historical fiction, which means some fictional elements are mixed with the real-life incidences of Marilyn Monroe. At Venice Film Festival, the film was first premiered and Armas received a 16-minute standing ovation.
‘Blonde’ blurs the lines between Monroe’s real life and fiction frequently. The movie mainly focuses on Monroe’s personal life, primarily her affairs, pregnancies, and struggle with her public persona as Marilyn Monroe, while it skirts around the deeper details of her marriages and career for the most part. Read on to know more about which incidences in the movie are not real.
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Is ‘Blonde’ Based On Monroe’s Real Life Events?
‘Blonde’ is not technically considered a biopic and is instead based on a semi-fictional book of the same name. This makes it difficult to decipher what is fact and what is fabricated. The movie takes viewers on a journey through the life of Marilyn Monroe, beginning with her troubled childhood and ending with her premature death in 1962.
Rather than examining the details of Marilyn Monroe’s life the way a traditional biopic would, ‘Blonde‘ is more interested in the idea of Marilyn Monroe than her life. This could explain why the movie chose to flub some of the facts surrounding its subject.
A major focus in ‘Blonde‘ is Marilyn’s yearning to meet her real father. At the beginning of the movie, Marilyn’s mother shows her a picture of Clark Gable. She tells young Norma Jean that he is her real father. Although this seems like something ‘Blonde‘ might have fabricated.
It is true that Monroe at one point thought Gable was her father, although it doesn’t seem like she took this belief as far in real life as Armas did in ‘Blonde‘. Monroe and Gable even went on to co-star in the 1961 movie ‘The Misfits‘ together.
Read More: 10 Actresses Who Have Played Marilyn Monroe Before Ana De Armas In ‘Blonde’
Was Marilyn Monroe In An Open Relationship?
At the beginning of Blonde, Marilyn is depicted entering a polyamorous relationship with actors Charles Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson Jr. When they are seen together in public, Marilyn is told by the studio to stop spending time with the two, effectively ending their relationship.
While Monroe was alleged to have had affairs with both actors separately, there’s no evidence for the polyamorous relationship that ‘Blonde‘ depicts. The film likely chose to include this plot since it was part of the original ‘Blonde‘ novel. However, there is no ties of them in real life having an open relationship.
The movie focuses on Monroe’s pregnancies at various points. Although they were not always factual. In reality, there is no evidence that Monroe was pregnant during 1953 or that she had an abortion. However, Monroe’s pregnancy and miscarriage during her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller (played by Adrien Brody) is factual. However, the circumstances of her miscarriage were likely fabricated for the movie.
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