A running gag in Knives Out—the late-November whodunit from director Rian Johnson
(Star Wars: The Last Jedi)—centers on a murdered patriarch’s private nurse, Marta,
played by Ana de Armas. “She’d been working for Harlan [Christopher Plummer] for
about five years,” says the Cuban actress, 31, who joins Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis,
Chris Evans, and LaKeith Stanfield in the ensemble thriller. “But the family has no clue
where she’s from. In every scene, she’s being told she’s from a different country.” Such
insensitivities, she says, were left on camera. In real life, the cast bonded like family,
thanks to two months of intensive autumn filming in Boston. She credits Curtis for
her maternal energy, Evans for his comic relief, and Stanfield for his sartorial sense.
As for De Armas, she soaked it all in. “They all had so many stories to tell,” says the
actress, who moved stateside in 2014 and was quickly cast in blockbusters like War
Dogs and Blade Runner 2049. “I was trying to absorb as much as I could.” Next, she’ll
shed Marta’s frumpy garb for more flattering fashion, playing the marquee role in
the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde and Craig’s next Bond girl in the spy franchise.ANA DE ARMAS
On De Armas:
Dress, Alberta
Ferretti, $4,995.
Earrings,
$1,950, bracelet,
$9,500, rings,
from $1,800, all,
De Beers. Her
own anklet.