‘Blonde’ DP Talks Interpreting Marilyn Monroe’s Life Through Experimentation and Excess: “We Were Just Pushing Things”
Etan Vlessing
November 15, 2022
Chayse Irvin says the fever-dream Netflix pic starring Ana de Armas was never intended to be a feel-good biopic: "It was very much about trying to explore her point of view and subjectivity."
Blonde cinematographer Chayse Irvin has been left scratching his head over his Marilyn Monroe film that launched with a 14-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, only to run into a buzzsaw of criticism for apparently exploiting the suffering of the screen icon, played by Ana de Armas.
Irvin tells The Hollywood Reporter that Blonde — as it graphically depicts the abuse and trauma inflicted on Monroe from her troubled childhood to a shock death at age 36 — was never intended as a celebratory biopic many may have expected.