After years of buzz and speculation, the NC-17 rated Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde has finally arrived on Netflix.
Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film adapts Joyce Carol Oates’ book of the same name, featuring Ana de Armas (Knives Out) as the iconic star in this fictionalized—and controversial—account of her fabled life and career.
Blonde has made headlines and been met with mixed reviews since premiering at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, upsetting moviegoers with its graphic depictions of sexual violence. According to the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, the “hard to watch” feature “teeters between commenting on [Monroe’s] exploitation and contributing to it.”
In other words, proceed with caution—this is far from your typical biopic.
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Minor spoilers for Blonde ahead.
Dark as it may be, there is at least one sequence of the film that we couldn’t look away from, and that’s Monroe’s whirlwind romance with fellow actors Charles Chaplin Jr. (Xavier Samuel) and Edward G. Robinson Jr (Evan Williams). That’s right, in Blonde’s imagined spin on Ms. Norma Jean’s life, she was once in a polyamorous throuple with two men—and they had no problem sharing.
Early in the film, just as Monroe’s career is starting to take off, she meets “Cass” and “Eddy” at the LA Actor’s Circle. They’re some of the first people in Hollywood to see her for the star she is, and soon the three fall into bed together.
But when Monroe lands a breakthrough role in the noir Niagra, she is cautioned to limit her public appearances with her lovers. Though she becomes pregnant, she ultimately decides to have an abortion for the sake of her career, and her relationship with the men soon fizzles out.
So is there any truth to Marilyn Monroe’s throuple? And who are the striking actors who play Cass and Eddy in Blonde? Let’s dive in…
Who are Charles Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson Jr.?
According to TIME, there is no official record of a relationship between Monroe and real-life actors “Cass” Chaplin and “Eddy” Robinson. It’s a storyline that appears to have been completely fabricated for Blonde. However, both actors do have history with the star.
As you might’ve guessed, Charles Chaplin Jr. is the son of screen legend Charlie Chaplin—in modern parlance, he was a “nepotism baby.” Born and raised in Los Angeles, Chaplin would eventually serve in the U.S. military during World War II before pursuing an acting career of his own. Some of his more well-known films include Fangs Of The Wild (1954) and The Beat Generation (1959). It’s widely believed that Chaplin and Monroe did at one point have an affair, which the actor even reference in his 1960 memoir, My Father, Charlie Chaplin. He passed in 1962 at the age of 42 because of a pulmonary condition.
Edward G. Robinson Jr., like his buddy Cass, was also a Hollywood “nepotism baby, ” the son of The Ten Commandments star Edward G. Robinson. It’s said that Chaplin is the one who introduced Robinson to Monroe, and the two began a short-lived romance. The pair remained friends after splitting, and he even made an on-screen appearance alongside her in Some Like It Hot (1959). Robinson also has a number of notable television roles, including Gunsmoke (1959) and Get Smart (1969). He died from a heart attack in 1974 at only 40 years old.
Who is Xavier Samuel?
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Samuel, who plays Cass in Blonde, is an Australian actor of stage and screen. He’s likely best recognized as the vampire Riley Biers from 2010’s Twilight: Eclipse, his first international breakthrough role, which scored him a pair of MTV Movie Award nominations. Since then, he’s appeared in films like Fury, Love & Friendship, and this year’s other big biopic, Elvis.
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Who is Evan Williams?
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The Alberta-born Williams stars as Eddy in Blonde. One of his first major roles was in Canadian television staple, Degrassi: The Next Generation, playing Kelly Ashoona, the one-time boyfriend of long-time central character Emma Nelson. He has a series regular role in the French historical drama Versailles, and has also appeared in shows like Awkward, Fuller House, and Westworld.
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Diplomat
The trailer is compelling.
RIGay
…then I sit here going “I hate Netflix because they only seem to offer serial shows, and I don’t feel like committing to binge watching a series”, then they offer movies on the service like “Elvis”, “Dahmer” and “Blonde” and I go “I hate Netflix because I don’t feel like committing two hours to sit and watch a movie”. [sigh]
I hate New England for making Autumn days so incredibly comfortable to want to turn off the TV and go outside.
southernway
The ONLY reason to watch this movie is the lead actress is brilliant, otherwise it needs a judicial cutting one about 35 to 45 minutes. Drags, and enough of the repetitiveness, although the three-way sex scene was filmed interestingly, it almost doesn’t belong in this film. Again, she is the only reason I stuck with the movie.
KellyRobinsonJr
I watched this last night. I felt like an uncomfortable voyeur to the abuse and exploits of Marylyn Monroe. The film is riveting, visually stunning, and even breathtaking. But it is also shocking, titillating, and disturbing. The flash of Mr. Zs erection in the rape scene, the blurred threesome, the view from inside Marylin’s vagina during her abortion, the BJ she was forced to give JFK while he was on the phone, and the ghost man in her bedroom before she died, the scenes were all uncomfortable to watch but hard to turn away from. The film blurred the line between exploitation and commentary. The film was hard to watch and equally hard to turn away from. This film is brutally effective. This film is hard to shake. As Marilyn famously once said, ” Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Ana de Armas is a STAR!
metta
I was really looking forward to seeing this. I’m sorry to say that I did not enjoy it. It is very dark, and the story jumps around. I feel like the characters were not developed enough. I’m just thankful that it is partially fiction.
humble charlie
there were enough actual horrors in monroe’s life, so why make up stuff and smear actual (using actual names) people who once lived. they do not deserve these personal attacks. i can only hope tha one of their heirs has the backbone to sue.