Marilyn Monroe Movie ‘Blonde’ Makes History As First Netflix Original With NC-17 Rating

The Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, which stars Ana de Armas as the legendary actress, is set to become the first Netflix original movie to be hit with a NC-17 rating. This isn’t sitting well with the film’s director Andrew Dominik, who said that the rating is “political” and “a bunch of horses***.”

Director Fumes Over NC-17 Rating For Blonde

Daily Mail reported that the Motion Pictures Association of America announced earlier in the week that Blonde would be rated NC-17 because of “some sexual content.” This rating means that no person under the age of 17 will be allowed to see the movie in theaters, whether they are accompanied by an adult or not.

Dominick fired back by telling Screen Daily that this is “a bunch of horses***… That’s just the ratings board being political.”

“It’s a demanding movie,” he continued. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f***ing audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”

Related: New Book Reveals Why Frank Sinatra Believed Marilyn Monroe Was Murdered

Dominick Says Rating Is Hypocritical 

Not stopping there, Dominick went on to say that the entire ratings system is hypocritical.

“If I look at an episode of Euphoria, it’s far more graphic than anything going on in Blonde,” he stated. “It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe. It’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.”

Dominick also said that the movie is “critical of American sacred cows,” adding that it “wouldn’t have got done” without the #MeToo movement “because nobody was interested in that sort of shit – what it’s like to be an unloved girl, or what it’s like to go through the Hollywood meat-grinder.”

Related: Jackie Kennedy Forced JFK To End His Affair With Marilyn Monroe For One Reason

De Armas As Marilyn Monroe In Blonde

The film stars de Armas, who is from Cuba, and she has admitted that it took her nine long months to master Monroe’s American accent.

“I tried! It only took me nine months of dialect coaching, and practicing, and some ADR sessions [rerecording dialogue after filming],” the former girlfriend of Ben Affleck said. “It was a big torture, so exhausting. My brain was fried.”

Blonde co-stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, and Julianne Nicholson. If the movie does open in theaters before moving to streaming, the NC-17 label could be an obstacle. But, Netflix usually relies on smaller chains for theater releases, so it may not be a problem. 

Blonde is based on a book written by Joyce Carol Oates that was published in 2000. It’s a fictionalized take on Marilyn Monroe’s life and includes a brutal rape scene that is taken right from the text of the book.

NC-17 ratings are something of a rarity for the film industry. The the only movie to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture with that rating is 1969’s Midnight Cowboy. It remains to be seen if Blonde  will be able to overcome the rating and become a success.