Ana de Armas may have ventured into the afterlife to prepare to portray Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde,” but the actress is now revealing that “Eden” is in fact her “scariest” role yet.
De Armas told Vanity Fair that starring in Ron Howard‘s ensemble survival film pushed her to get to her “craziest” self onscreen. The feature co-stars Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, and Vanessa Kirby. “Eden” will debut at TIFF where it is looking for distribution.
“I got a little scared, and I told [Ron] I was nervous because it was really out there,” de Armas said of joining the film. “He was very supportive and excited. There was no question I wanted to do it. I wanted the challenge.”
De Armas teased that her Baroness character is pulled in a few different directions, which added to the “crazy” nature of the role.
“Having this crazy threesome relationship, and being a woman of opposites — either she’s sweet and tender and fragile and nervous and scared, or she’s absolutely crazy and dangerous, it was kind of finding that limit,” de Armas said. “What was the craziest I could get? How far could I go?”
A particular sequence led de Armas to admit that the scene was “the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It was kind of like a chess game. We spent three days shooting that.”
And the jungle-set production proved to be a “rough” shoot due to their truncated schedule.
“It was a long shoot. We had a lot to do. There was no time for breaks,” de Armas said. “There was nothing luxurious about the shoot or the set or the environment.”
Yet de Armas’ determination was evident to director Howard.
“I’m so impressed with her creative courage. She’s a risk-taker as an artist,” Howard said of Oscar-nominated de Armas. “And I knew that it was going to take that kind of individual.”
Howard added that “Eden” was filmed “on a really tight budget” and that all of the sets were built on location. “Our only cover was to shoot real fucking fast when we had the good weather,” he said.
