Writer/ Director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly) is drawn to stories about human constructs – examinations of the man behind the myth or myth behind the man. His exploration of the iconic Marilyn Monroe (played by Ana De Arnas) in Blonde drew its inspiration from a fictionalized account of her life in a novel by Joyce Carol Oates rather than him being a lifelong fan of Marilyn Monroe.

“I had no interest in Marilyn Monroe until I read Joyce’s novel,” the director chuckled laconically. “The book was my entrée into the world of Marilyn.” Despite his reluctance to declare himself a Marilyn fan, Dominik stated that, “You’d have to be an idiot not to like ‘Some Like It Hot.‘”

Who Was Marilyn?

Dissecting a seven hundred page novel and adapting it into a nearly three hour film is no easy task. “I pulled out the stuff that felt urgent to me… the stuff I had an instinctive affinity for and how those pieces were communicating with each other,” he continued.

Ultimately, Andrew Dominik honed in on Marilyn Monroe’s origin story and the trauma surrounding her childhood. “This trauma repeated itself throughout her adult life because she’s unable to resolve her feelings or even examine them.”

Marilyn’s unresolved trauma became the template to select what to keep and what to throw away

Marilyn’s mother Gladys Baker (played by Julianne Nicholson) suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was institutionalised when Norma Jeane was seven years old until her death. Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Baker, never knew who her father was because he abandoned them before she was born.

Andrew Dominik. Photo by Charley Gallay/ Getty Images for Netflix

Marilyn’s formative years where therefore marred by largely absent and unavailable parents. A main creative liberty Dominik took in Blonde was to use premonitions and projections of her father (rumoured to be Charles Stanley Gifford) to Marilyn her make sense of her life and circumstances. “I think her father was a fantasy Marilyn carried with her to solve the puzzle.”

Norma Jeane Baker was scarred by the notion that her mother’s life might have been good if she’d never been born. The construction of Marilyn Monroe was ostensibly a reaction to her yearning for a “Da-Da-Daddy” that she could love and he would love her back.

“Despite her mental health issues, Norma loved her mother in ways she’s not even aware of. The one scene where Marilyn visited her mother in the hospital and she didn’t recognize her was one when we see Marilyn at her most naked and vulnerable.”

Gladys tried to drown the seven-year-old Norma Jeane. “If your mother wants you to die, there’s a part of you that wants to fulfil that ambition as an act of devotion,” opined Dominik. This was a part of the psychological motivation for burying Norma Jeane Baker and giving birth to Marilyn Monroe.

“The essential message Norma Jeane has is that she destroyed her mother’s life by being born. We see this over and over again through Marilyn’s pregnancies which she saw as a chance to reparent herself. If Marilyn could become a mother, she could undo the damage to little Norma Jeane.”

Marilyn struggled with both a desire for motherhood and fear of it because her only experience of motherhood is her mother. “If she has a child she could turn into Gladys. She’s in an unwinnable situation.”

Cass, Eddie & Marilyn

Marilyn’s relationships with men were fraught with problems. Cass Chaplin (Xavier Samuel) and Eddie Robinson (Evan Williams) are the only ones that see and understand both Norma Jeane and Marilyn Monroe. Cass was Charlie Chaplin’s elder son and Eddie Robinson (Jensen Ackles) was the son of Edward G. Robinson. Both were children of famous actors.

The Cass-Eddie-Marilyn triad could have been the ideal marriage. But it was always doomed to failure. “They were just as damaged as she was. They’re both sons of famous fathers and their knowledge of who their fathers are is the thing they hold responsible for the destruction of their lives.”

“Norma Jeane doesn’t know who her father is which they see as giving her a freedom and a chance to self-actualize because she’s not crushed under the weight of a famous name.”

Eddie and Cass are also struggling actors and understand Marilyn’s journey. “They’re also more excited by Marilyn than Norma Jeane. They’ve bought into the fantasy as much as everybody else.” Eddie and Cass can draw a distinction between Marilyn and Norma and don’t push her into being something she’s not.

Dominik sees their relationship as being more fraternal. Neither Cass and Eddie are husbandry material and are certainly not to be trusted. However, they provide the shelter and protection that Marilyn craves.

Andrew Dominik believed that Marilyn’s marriages were doomed from the first moment she met her prospective husbands. “It was almost as if she was either looking to be abandoned in a certain sense to conquer the abandonment by trying to control and change the outcome of the abandoning situation.”

“You could immediately see the compromises that Marilyn made with her other husbands the Ex-Athlete (a reference to Joe DiMaggio played by Bobby Cannavale) and the Playwright (a reference to Arthur Miller played by Adrien Brody) as soon as she met them.

The Ex-Athlete (Bobby Cannavale) & Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) Photo courtesy of Netflix

The director isn’t sure that Marilyn is fully aware of her self-destructive inclinations and their impact. “She’s almost hiding a certain reality of being unloved from herself.” She can’t see the world clearly. “She’s seeing her own drama that she projects onto things. She sees nightmares where there aren’t any.” Paradoxically, as Blonde progresses, Marilyn can’t see that the nightmares she’s created are really that serious. (She’s snatched by the Secret Service).

The distinctive factor of Blonde is its, chilling, haunting, and even, hallucinogenic dreamscape mood. Andrew Dominik gives a nod to David Lynch which he’s stated as being a cinematic influence.

“When Norma Jeane is a child, Blonde is very simplistic. The film grows up as she does, and it becomes more sophisticated and jaded.”

This is a key intention for Blonde. “The audience understands why Marilyn does what she does when nobody else in Blonde does. Her primary relationship is with the viewers and not the other characters. This creates an intimacy and empathy for Marilyn.”

Adapting Blonde For The Screen

Dominik began the adaptation process by creating a reference which shaped the key images of the film he wanted to capture.

In spite of his creative liberties, Dominik’s film doesn’t stray too far from its source material. “I rewrote the scene with the Ex-Athlete [DiMaggio] several times to get it right.” This was their heated argument after discovering the infamous image of Marilyn standing over a railway grate with her dress billowing around her legs.

Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Much of the dialogue in Blonde was taken directly from the novel. “The first third of the novel was always the most difficult part to adapt. After the Ex-Athlete [DiMaggio] was introduced the writing became easier.”

“The first hour of Blonde was the most difficult to set up. It allowed the audience to be the detective and put the pieces together.” This wasn’t explained, but left to the audience to untangle. “The film needs you to contribute your powers of observation. You have to trust the process.” At some point, the audience becomes Marilyn.

Blonde also mines themes of identity, private and public selves, and being invisible when you’re hiding behind a persona as you’re figuring out who you are. “Marilyn, the icon, the memory… is all that’s left. They’re called stars because they’re so bright. But their light still travels towards us even after the star’s exploded,” added Dominik.

People’s feelings about Marilyn may change over the years, but her image remains constant. She’s been portrayed as both a sex symbol and a symbol of female empowerment. “Sometimes she’s a damsel in distress and sometimes she’s calculating.”

Andrew Dominik doesn’t take a singular approach to his storytelling. “Blonde is an elliptical experience. I watch a film with my stomach. Blonde is a car traveling without any brakes. At the end, I want audiences to feel devastated and numbed.“