Ana de Armas responds to backlash about sex scenes in Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic

Ana de Armas has responded to backlash about the graphic sex scenes in Netflix’s Blonde.

The 34-year-old plays Marilyn Monroe in the fictionalised biopic about the actress’s fame and demise.

The Cuban-Spanish actress has had to defend Blonde after heavy criticism following its Netflix release on September 28.

Ahead of it’s release, Ana was excited about the”beautiful film”, and felt the producers had brought “this story to life”.

She wrote to her 8.4 million Instagram followers: “My heart is filled with excitement as finally the world will get to see this beautiful film.

“I wanna thank our incredibly talented cast and crew for being so amazing and putting so much work and love into this film. And a special thanks to Andrew Dominik, Joyce Carol Oates, and our producers at Plan B and Netflix for bringing this story to life.”

However, following it’s release, Blonde has been heavily criticised - the two-hour and 46-minute drama includes a rape scene, a threesome, and a fictional moment where John F. Kennedy forces Marilyn into an unwanted sexual situation.

The latter scene led the movie to get an NC-17 (17 and under can’t watch) rating - the first of its kind on Netflix.

Strangely, some scenes are also filmed as though they are inside the actress’s vagina.

Now, Ana has opened up about the shocking sex scenes in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

The No Time To Die actress said: "It’s harder for people to watch [those scenes] than for me to make them, because I understood what I was doing and I felt very protected and safe.

“I didn’t feel exploited because I was in control. I made that decision. I knew what movie I was doing. I trusted my director."

The 34-year-old then added that despite the scenes being “hard”, she felt like she was in a “safe environment”.

Ana said: "I felt like I was in a safe environment... We had hundreds of conversations about these scenes. Everyone felt a deep respect for the movie we were making.

“And in that sense, I had no fear. I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, even though they were really hard scenes."

The Gray Man actress said that the sexual scene, which led to the film getting an NC-17 rating, was "essential" to convey the film’s message.

She explained: "We actually did two takes of that scene only... We had an intimacy coordinator with us all the time, and she was very helpful."

Ana also defended the move, and its criticised scenes, she said: "I wouldn’t even say these scenes were more difficult than any other scene. It was just a part of a whole story.

“I knew exactly what the shot was going to be. I knew exactly what was going to be seen, what was not going to be seen, and it felt like it was the right thing to do."