It was one of the most anticipated projects of the year, taking into account the figure being talked about, Marilyn Monroe. Exactly for this reason, blonde is among the most polarizing films this seasonwith fans and detractors alike.

Its director, the Australian Andrew Dominicdid not remain silent and responded to those who believe that the biopic on the diva, played by Ana de Armas, it’s one of the worst of the year. Even those who believe that the Cuban actress’s performance is remarkable argue that the Netflix film is not worth it.

But the director he thinks he knows why Americans, in particular, didn’t like it blonde. Some even “hate” it, says Dominik. And he assures that it is because what his film shows she is a disempowered Marilyn Monroe.

Time issues?

“We now live in an age where it is important to present women as empowered and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman. This is what they want to seeDominic said. “And if you don’t show him, he annoys them”, said the director during his stay at the Red Sea Film Festival, in an interview with the specialized site The Hollywood Reporter.

Dominik elaborated assuring him audiences in the US are not ready to accept a film like yours and a protagonist like the one he presents. And he also responded to the criticisms that “Exploited” blonde Marilyn Monroe.

“That’s kind of weird, because she’s dead,” he said. “The film makes no difference one way or the other. What they really mean is that the film exploited her memory, the image of her, which is right.”

And he added: “That’s the whole idea of ​​the film, in fact. It’s trying to take the iconography of his life and put it in the service of something else, it’s trying to take the things that the viewer is familiar with and turn the meaning But that’s what they don’t want to see.

Based on this analysis, the Australian director believes that American films that are part of the powerful Hollywood industry are becoming more conservative. And, to refer to that, he used the example of how audiences now want a bedtime story whose ending isn’t going to cause a real reaction: “But I don’t want to make bedtime stories”, he stressed.

Defending his particular point of view on filmmaking and especially his way of dealing with this personality with such an imprint on popular culture, Dominik said: “There’s a long history that directors’ dream projects are bad movies United States critics would say that blonde. But they are wrong.”

For the director”criticism only hurts if you agree, and the truth is, I didn’t agree with anyone. I expected a critical success and no one would notice and it was the other way around. In America they hated the film, the critics were outraged but a lot of people saw it. And that surprised me a little.”

Reflecting on his origins and training as a filmmaker, Dominik, 55, says: “I’m Australian, from Melbourne, and grew up in the 1980s, when offending audiences was a solemn duty. The world of cinema has become less and less less so; the world of cinema and society in general have been very careful not to offend people”.