Ana de Armas learned English so quickly ‘because my life depended on it’

Constance Wu attends the 22nd CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 28, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California© Jill Johnson/jpistudios.com

Ana de Armas covers the latest issue of Vanity Fair. Of all the It Girls who have come and gone in the past decade, I think Ana is one of the best we’ve had. She’s beautiful, Cuban, talented and very badass. I strongly suspect that most of her leading men have fallen in love with her. And so I approve of the Vanity Fair “It Girl” treatment, as they’ve done to many other bright young things. Ana has a bunch of stuff in the pipeline too: she’s still got a glow from Knives Out (where she was the lead of the ensemble), she’s a “Bond Girl” in No Time To Die, she’s in Deep Water with Ben Affleck, she’s in The Night Clerk with Helen Hunt and she was recently cast as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. You can read the full VF piece here. Some highlights:

She owns a home in Havana: She spent New Year’s at a “roof party in the old part of Havana, playing music and dancing and drinking.” But things are more complicated than they seem. That party was full of actors she’s long admired “who said how proud they were, and that now I was the example for Cuban actors.” She cries just recounting it. Her parents have never been able to attend one of her film premieres. They see her work “later, like a bad copy or something.” In what should be satire, some L.A. acquaintances have gone so far as to tell her they envy the “digital detox” of Cuba or the fun of “not knowing what you’re going to eat for breakfast.” When the country was briefly open during the Obama administration, she heard concerns it would be overrun by Starbucks—“Americans complain about something existing, but then when they don’t have it, they also complain.”

She packs her bags, goes to Cuba & then leaves with nothing: “I came straight from Havana, so I’ve been wearing my plane clothes. My suitcases go full of clothing or medicine or supplies—whatever people need—and come back empty.”

Hollywood is “not my life, it’s my reality.” “I have great friends, and incredible things have happened for me here, but the lifestyle and the exposure and the constant business situations are not for me. I like talking about life and art and babies and pets. Acting is what I love to do, but I can’t talk about it, not all the time.”

She didn’t have any family in Miami, so she went to Spain first: Hers was “one of the few Cuban families with no one in Miami even. The conversation was always Spain. People ask ‘How did you make this choice or that?’ But there was only ever one choice at a time. I’ve never seen my life in two ways, the way I wanted it and plan B. There was only ever the way I wanted it.”

She didn’t speak English when she came to LA: War Dogs director Todd Phillips “changed a line of dialogue and it was a disaster. In the end he was like, ‘Okay, forget it, just say what you had.’ It’s not a good place to be as an actor. I couldn’t sustain a conversation….People ask, ‘How did you learn English so quickly?’ I’m like, ‘Because my life depended on it.’”

Playing Marilyn Monroe: “I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said ‘It’s you,’ but I had to audition for everyone else. The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe. I wanted it so badly.”

Her love life: Early in her L.A. life, she was in a serious relationship with agent Franklin Latt, heir apparent to Kevin Huvane at CAA. We don’t get into names, but about her personal life, she says, succinctly: “I’ve had company here, but it’s been the wrong company so I prefer to be alone. For anyone who ever questions or how did I get to do this or that, f–k them. They will not get to spend their New Year’s with me. They are not the people whose opinion I should care about. They are not the people I share my happiness with. I’ve never had an agenda. All I want to do is work. All I want to do is get something challenging and prove to myself that I can do it.”

[From Vanity Fair]

That last part is purposefully vague in the Vanity Fair article, because like so many pretty young actresses who find early success, there are rumors of casting couches and affairs. For the record, I think she’s a beautiful woman and men are like flies to honey with her and that’s why she’s working so much – she’s beautiful and talented and dudes want to hire her. And that’s it. Plus the relationship with a powerful CAA agent too. As for the rest of it… I did NOT know that she still lives in Havana. That must be crazy for her to try to create a home base there, and travel back and forth for work, even with the eased travel restrictions between Cuba and America. Wow.

Ana De Armas attends The premiere of "Knives Out" in Los Angeles

Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of VF.

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33 Responses to “Ana de Armas learned English so quickly ‘because my life depended on it’”

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  1. Trillion says:

    Just watched Knives Out and was so impressed with her acting skills. I’ll be watching out for her.

  2. RedWeatherTiger says:

    She was exceptional in Knives Out. Funny, poignant, outrageously beautiful (despite her character being made to look frumpy). I can’t wait to see her in other projects.

    • Moneypenny says:

      Me too! Saw it this weekend and was mesmorized by her. She was so good and just so unbelievably beautiful.

  3. savu says:

    She was SO captivating in Knives Out. I told my boyfriend I had a crush on her when we left! What a beautiful interesting person.

  4. Ferdinand says:

    She’s amazing and I have lots more of respect for her now. Hopefully she gets to have a long lasting acting career.

  5. Valiantly Varnished says:

    I dont think it’s all that vague – what she said was actually pretty pointed: “I’ve had company here, but it’s been the wrong company so I prefer to be alone. For anyone who ever questions or how did I get to do this or that, f–k them.“

    I think she is clearly stating that she isn’t into dating anymore “Hollywood” people. I think this is why we haven’t heard of her dating any of her costars

    • Jerusha says:

      She seemed to have a happy relationship with Edgar Ramirez, her co-star in Hands of Stone. At least, according to her IG., but that seems over. I’ve been aware of her since the terrible movies Knock, Knock(2015) and Exposed(2016), which she was good in while the movies were bad.
      She has a gorgeous little dog named Elvis.

    • Wowowow says:

      I thought she meant casting couch by the “how did I get to do this.” I didn’t like how she / her character’s sexuality was exploited in Bladerunner 2 but let’s not be all negative; she’s a good actress. Never seen her do badly in a scene. I honestly thought Edgar Ramirez was gay.

  6. Mia4s says:

    “ because like so many pretty young actresses who find early success, there are rumors of casting couches and affairs”

    You’re right, it never changes. “Oh well she came out of nowhere, how else could she…”.

    And yet no one ever asks who Chris Hemsworth or Robert Pattinson, etc. had to f**k to get the leads of major franchises out of nowhere.

    Sigh….I’m tired.

    • Wowowow says:

      But men and women are different by physical nature, aren’t they? Charlize Theron in Mad Max had a great interpretation of female sexuality. Female sexuality isn’t inherently more prone to exploitation but some interpretations of it is. I felt very uneasy watching Ana’s nudity in Bladerunner 2. That movie was rude about women, end of.

  7. Kelly says:

    She was amazing in Knives Out. Her and Zhao Shuzhen were the truly outrageous supporting Oscar snubs.

    When I read she was playing a Bond girl I was like “Nooooooo”. Bond girls tend to fade away rather quickly. I hope her career gets to flourish.

  8. Helen says:

    I wonder how she’ll be able to get rid of her thick accent so quickly to play Marilyn…

    • Who ARE These People? says:

      She’s an actor. She’ll figure it out, if she convinced fthe money people…

    • Bananas says:

      “I wonder how she’ll be able to get rid of her thick accent so quickly to play Marilyn…“

      I wonder why your parents didn’t teach you manners.

  9. Mish says:

    I’m so glad Weinstein is not around to prey on new actors coming into the business.

    Sure, I’m betting there are some we’ll never hear from bec they would’ve been down with the er, transaction, and gotten that big break – now that’s no longer an avenue/option.

    I’m just glad the behemoth of workplace sexual harrassment has been taken out of the game. Women must be so relieved.
    Not that they’re all gone, by any means.

  10. sassbr says:

    I have been a fan of hers since Bladerunner 2049. That movie is so overlooked. She plays a companionship hologram with AI that is in love with Ryan Gosling’s character and it’s up to you to decide if her love for him is just a feature of her OS or if she was able to develop an actual true affection for him that was beyond her programming. Very nuanced.

  11. GloryS says:

    I spent the whole of Knives out thinking she was Felicity Jones!

  12. ranny says:

    Yeah she looks like Felicity Jones. Only the cover photo looks good, the rest of them in VF Website are so so. She is pretty and can act.

  13. JustMe says:

    Legit thought the picture was a young Angelina Jolie when I saw it at first

  14. Wilmarama says:

    She has the classic look men love: round cheeks, pouty mouth, swoony eyes.
    She looks like a child, and men eat that sh*t up

    • DiegoInSF says:

      Like a child 🙄

    • A says:

      Idk which kids you’ve been hanging out with but she looks nothing like a child, in fact she has a very seductive look and oozes sensuality. Men definitely eat that sh-t up.

    • GreenTurtle says:

      Really? Gosh, I know she has big eyes and a pout, but she has very adult bone structure, imo. I find her strikingly beautiful in the way of Angelina or Monica Bellucci at that age.

  15. A says:

    I remember when she said she got in CAA without speaking English and I was like nah she’s exaggerating. Now that her relationship with Kevin Huvane at CAA is mentioned, everything makes sense. And yeah you’re right, rich powerful white men seem hell bent on making her career happen (Cary Fukunaga hired her because he is fan? Oh please)

    It’s very strange how someone who didn’t have a critically acclaimed career in Spain is getting all these big budget/Oscar bait projects in Hollywood. Ana used to be my girl crush but the more I notice the trajectory of her career in Hollywood…it seems like she’s not someone I can respect.

    • DiegoInSF says:

      The relationship was not with Kevin but his heir apparent. Also Fukunaga is not white.

      • A says:

        @Diegoinsf

        Oops my bad she used to date Kevin’s heir apparent Franklin Latt who reps Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Glenn Close and Viola Davis. I’m sure it was love at first sight for Ana. I know Cary is not white I was just pointing out what VF wrote about him in that article.

        @Otaku Fairy
        Truth hurts but it shall set you free 😉

        @Yati
        Andrew Dominik who is directing her Marilyn Monroe movie also likes em’ young. I’m sure he only hired Ana for her acting talent.

        Here’s what people don’t wanna admit. Ana was in a serious relationship with some guy and doing small Netflix movies. She broke up with him and suddenly started getting hired by all these old directors for big projects. And now she’s trying to dismiss casting couch rumours even though no one asked her? That’s suspicious.

      • It never ceases to amaze me how misogyny always seems to make it through…but disagreements, or critiques of them can oh so meticulously be zapped.

        All of these women get these kind of allegations. One of the reasons why many slut-shamed women and girls are afraid to stand up for themselves when that happens is exactly because of this in the first place: in a patriarchal society, a woman denying those rumors and defending herself in any way is automatically viewed with suspicion. It opens her up to more abuse. Honestly, it was a daring move for her to even defend herself at all knowing what the reaction could be and how not all women support other women (clearly). Sometimes people develop feelings for people they work around- her having dated who she dated doesn’t mean she fucked that guy for a role.
        The other gross part of this is the attitude that if a woman actually was ever involved in sex work, we no longer owe her the respect we owe other human beings. That mentality has dangerous, violent consequences for women every day.

    • That’s pretty telling, but not about her.

    • Yati says:

      Fukunaga has the rep to like them very young so Ana was likely a professional appeal to him.

  16. CC says:

    FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY ANOTHER MARILYN MONROE MOVIE?!

  17. Wowowow says:

    She’s in Deep Water (with Ben Affleck), a movie by Adrian Lynne. I remember when he was doing Lolita and Natalie Portman turned it down and said something like, “Let me tell you, this movie’s going to be sleaze” – if I’m remembering accurately. Lynne also made some comments that made me go, “WTF?” about his appropriateness towards the inappropriateness of the set-up in Lolita – if I’m remembering correctly.