The announcement that “Blonde,” Andrew Dominik’s biopic of Marilyn Monroe starring Ana de Armas, would be labelled NC-17, immediately sparked months of debate and interest. This is the result of the NC-17 rating, which makes it impossible for anyone under the age of 17 to purchase a ticket.
The X rating, which distributors had long loathed since it conjured up images of pornographic movies rather than just adult-skewing dramas with explicit scenes, was officially replaced by the NC-17 rating in 1990. However, despite having a rating that was below X, the NC-17 continued to court controversy and provoke shock in moviegoers. The rating, which is frequently assigned to movies with explicit or full-frontal nudity
Andrew Dominik’s Netflix drama “Blonde” is rated NC-17 for “sexual content,” most likely because it includes prolonged nude scenes and one extended sequence centered on John F. Kennedy sexually assaulting Marilyn Monroe while she’s nearly unconscious. Ana de Armas, who has earned career-best reviews for playing the Hollywood icon, said ahead of the film’s release that she was baffled by the movie’s explicit rating.
“I didn’t understand why that happened,” de Armas said. “I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than ‘Blonde.’ But to tell this story it is important to show all these moments in Marilyn’s life that made her end up the way that she did. It needed to be explained. Everyone [in the cast] knew we had to go to uncomfortable places. I wasn’t the only one.”
Dominik added in a separate interview, “I was surprised. Yeah. I thought we’d colored inside the lines. But I think if you’ve got a bunch of men and women in a boardroom talking about sexual behavior, maybe the men are going to be worried about what the women think. It’s just a weird time. It’s not like depictions of happy sexuality. It’s depictions of situations that are ambiguous. And Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think? I don’t know why. They make more porn than anyone else in the world.”
