LOS ANGELES, CA -- NOVEMBER 15,
2019: Ana de Armas stars in the ensemble
film "Knives Out," a comic, twisty, murder
mystery. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles
Times)A
na de Armas
is looking for a
place to call
home. “I’ve
been in L.A.
for six years,”
she says,
lounging in a Beverly Hills hotel
to talk about her latest film, writ-
er-director Rian Johnson’s spry
whodunit “Knives Out.” “But I’m
in an in-between moment of de-
ciding where I want to go next.
I’ve been working so much that I
miss my family — I might want to
spend more time in Cuba, or may-
be move to New York and try a
different kind of city with anoth-
er energy and vibe. But right now,
I’m neither in L.A. or New York,
because I’m working in New Orle-
ans.”
Warm and playful in person,
the 31-year-old actress, who was
born in Havana but spent much of
her childhood in the small Cuban
town of Santa Cruz del Norte, is in
the midst of a whirlwind string of
performances. De Armas first
gained the spotlight as a soulful
hologram in 2017’s “Blade Runner
2049” and next has a hush-hush
role in the upcoming James Bond
movie, “No Time to Die,” where
she reunites with her “Knives
Out” costar Daniel Craig. (She’s
currently filming “Deep Water,” a
thriller with Ben Affleck, in New
Orleans.)
De Armas is grateful for her
busy schedule and rising profile,
even if the nomadic lifestyle has
its disadvantages. “It feels kind offreeing: When I finish a job and
have downtime, I can literally go
anywhere I want. But it feels kind
of lonely, too, because you don’t
have a home. I guess you’ve got to
be careful what you wish for,
right?”
Her hot streak continues with
“Knives Out,” in which she plays
Marta Cabrera, a Latina immi-
grant who lovingly cares for Har-
lan Thrombey (Christopher
Plummer), a renowned mystery
novelist and patriarch of a
wealthy, conniving family of vul-
tures. When Harlan is found dead
after his 85th-birthday party,
Thrombey’s entire clan becomes
suspects, with the investigation
led by the eccentric detective
Benoit Blanc (Craig).
Initially, though, De Armas
wasn’t interested when she found
out she’d be shown only one
scene to audition — and that
Marta was described simply as
“Caretaker, Latina, pretty.”
“I’ve seen that before,” she says
unhappily about that thumbnail
character portrait. “ ‘Latina’ I
have no problem with, because
I’m Cuban and very proud to be
Cuban. But that [description]
didn’t say anything to me. There’s
no information at all about her
character.” De Armas knew that
the film had already cast big stars
like Craig and Chris Evans, so she
figured Marta would be just an-
other small, possibly stereotyp-
ical ethnic role that she wanted to
avoid.
But after insisting on readingthe script, which the production
resisted for fear of spoilers leak-
ing out, De Armas discovered
what audiences will learn about
Marta: She’s actually a central fig-
ure in “Knives Out,” serving as
this darkly comic film’s moral
compass and unexpected scene-
stealer. In the process, De Armas
gives her richest and most nu-
anced performance to date.
“She’s the one who knows all
the secrets and who’s actually
mourning the death of her friend,”
says De Armas, who points to
Marta’s most amusing character
trait, which is that she’s incapable
of lying without throwing up —
not an enviable attribute in a mov-
ie rife with deception. But it’s one
of the reasons De Armas fell inlove with her. “It’s like a metaphor
for being true to yourself and to
always do the right thing. I
thought it was beautiful. I had so
much to play with. Rian gave me
all the tools to make it work.”
De Armas is not sure what
drew her to performing when she
was young. With a laugh, she of-
fers, “I think I just had a lot of time
to get bored. I used my imagina-
tion to have fun. No one in the
town I grew up in had a video
game. I never had a VHS video
player. I just knew that I wanted
to be seen by people and do some-
thing bigger.”
After studying acting in Cuba,
she moved to Spain, quickly real-
izing she didn’t have nearly
enough money to stay afloat. Butfate intervened: A friend of a
friend of her brother’s let her
crash on the couch. Soon after, De
Armas was getting cast in Spanish
TV series and movies, although
she knew she’d eventually travel
to Hollywood, despite not speak-
ing English.
Her experiences as an outsider
made “Knives Out” especially res-
onant, for although the movie is
largely a crafty mystery/comedy/
thriller, De Armas also sees it as a
commentary on the cruelty of the
rich to those less fortunate.
“We’re dealing with this nowa-
days all the time,” she says. “It’s
really hard for people to put
[themselves] in someone else’s
shoes. [We’re] incapable of empa-
thizing and helping each other,
especially when you’re in a posi-
tion of power and have all that
money, like this family. Just the
entitlement — that sense that you
deserve everything and you can
get away with anything — it hap-
pens all the time.”
The sun sets outside the win-
dow of De Armas’ suite, which
means that shortly she’ll be
whisked away to a “Knives Out”
screening this evening. She has a
big smile on her face, invigorated
by all the projects she’s doing —
including “Blonde,” her Marilyn
Monroe biopic directed by An-
drew Dominik, who spent a dec-
ade trying to find his Norma
Jeane. De Armas prepared not just
by watching Monroe’s movies but
also studying her era. And she
worked with an accent coach for a
year. Whether it’s Marta or Mari-
lyn, she wants to get it right.
“It was a lot of work,” she says
of “Blonde,” “but each character
deserves that. If I’m not ener-
gized, it’s not fair to that part. I
don’t want to get into that auto-
matic-pilot mode. I don’t just
want to show up for work. I want
to do things that excite me.”
Ana de Armas may not have a
home, but she knows where she’s
going. 8THE CONTENDERS
Outsider
holds
the key
Myung J. ChunLos Angeles TimesThe ‘Knives Out’ role (‘Latina, pretty’) initially
alienated Ana de Armas. But she investigated.
BY TIM GRIERSON
S42
THE ENVELOPE LOS ANGELES TIMES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019