Ana de Armas

As a teenager in her native Cuba, de Armas had a starring role opposite Álex González in Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006).[10] Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría suggested that the director consider de Armas for the role, after meeting her while attending a birthday party with his daughters.[2][21] The director visited de Armas's drama school and interrupted the sixteen-year-old during her audition to inform her that the role was hers.[2][22] She travelled to Spain as part of a promotional tour for the film and was introduced to Juan Lanja, who would later become her Spanish agent.[2] She then starred in the movie El edén perdido (2007) and had a supporting role in Fernando Pérez's Madrigal (2007), filmed at night without the permission of her drama school tutors.[6]

At the age of 18, de Armas moved to Madrid, Spain. Within two weeks of arriving, she met with casting director Luis San Narciso, who had seen her in Una rosa de Francia.[11] He cast her as Carolina in the teen drama El Internado,[6] in which she starred for six seasons from 2007 to 2010. The television show, set in a boarding school, became popular with viewers and made de Armas a celebrity figure in Spain.[6] In a break from filming, she starred in the successful coming-of-age comedy Mentiras y Gordas (2009).[23] Despite the popularity of El Internado, de Armas felt typecast and was mainly offered roles as teenagers.[11] She asked to be written out of the show in its second last season.[24] After spending a few months living in New York to learn English,[20] de Armas was persuaded to return to Spain to star in seventeen episodes of the historical drama Hispania (2010–2011).[1] She then starred in Antonio Trashorras's horror films El callejón (2011) and Anabel (2015),[25] and in the drama Por un puñado de besos (2014).[26] During a long period without acting work,[18] de Armas participated in workshops at Tomaz Pandur's Madrid theatre company[3] and felt "very anxious" about the lack of momentum in her career.[12] With encouragement from her newly hired Hollywood agent, she decided to move to Los Angeles.[11]

When de Armas first arrived in Los Angeles in 2014,[27] she had to start her career again "from scratch."[13] She spoke very little English and, during early auditions, she often "didn’t even know what [she] was saying."[4] She spent four months in full-time education to learn the English language,[28][24] not wanting to be confined to playing roles specifically written for Latina actresses.[6] She starred opposite Keanu Reeves in her first Hollywood release—Eli Roth's erotic horror thriller Knock Knock (2015)—and learned her lines phonetically.[29] Reeves then telephoned de Armas to invite her to star in a Spanish-language role in the thriller Exposed (2016), which he acted in and produced.[30] De Armas had a supporting role in Todd Phillips's War Dogs (2016), acting opposite Miles Teller as the wife of an arms dealer, and again learned her lines phonetically.[31] David Ehrlich of Indiewire found her "memorable in a thankless role".[32] She starred opposite Édgar Ramírez in the biopic Hands of Stone (2016) as the wife of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán. Despite its delayed release, Hands of Stone was the first Hollywood movie de Armas filmed. She had been contacted by director Jonathan Jakubowicz while still living in Madrid; he had seen her in El Internado[24] and asked her to travel to Los Angeles to audition for the Spanish-language part.[10] In reviewing the film, Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com described de Armas as "a hugely charismatic presence. But except for a couple of showy moments, she gets little to do besides function as the dutiful wife."[33]

De Armas attending the world premiere of Knives Out at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

In Denis Villeneuve's futuristic thriller Blade Runner 2049 (2017), de Armas had a supporting role as Joi, the holographic AI girlfriend of Ryan Gosling's character. Mark Kermode of The Guardian said she "brings three-dimensional warmth to a character who is essentially a digital projection."[34] Anthony Lane of the New Yorker found her "wondrous": "Whenever Joi appears, the movie’s imaginative heart begins to race."[35] While the performance was initially discussed as a breakthrough role,[36][27] the film underperformed commercially, and de Armas spent much of the following year in her native Cuba, where she bought a house.[29] Also in 2017, she had a supporting role in the action thriller Overdrive as the love interest of Scott Eastwood's character.[37] Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter said she "radiates more kick-ass charisma than her thankless sidekick role might suggest."[38] In 2018, de Armas starred opposite Demián Bichir in John Hillcoat's medical drama Corazón. She played a Dominican woman with heart failure in the short film, funded by Montefiore Medical Center to raise awareness of organ donation.[39]

De Armas's role as an immigrant nurse in the ensemble murder mystery film Knives Out (2019), written and directed by Rian Johnson, was widely praised and marked a breakthrough for the actress.[40] When first approached about the project, she was unenthusiastic about the idea of playing a stereotypical “Latina caretaker” but soon realised that her character was "so much more than that."[41] Tom Shone of The Times remarked: "The film’s standout performance comes from its least well-known member, the Cuban de Armas, who manages the difficult task of making goodness interesting."[42] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian said her "striking" performance left a "lasting impression."[43] The film was a major box office success.[44] De Armas was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical[45] and the cast won the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast.[46] While de Armas's scenes opposite Himesh Patel in the 2019 romantic comedy Yesterday were included in the movie's trailer, they were deleted from the final cut. The director Danny Boyle said that, while de Armas was "really radiant" in her scenes, the introduction of a love triangle subplot did not test well with audiences.[47]

De Armas has six films scheduled for release in the United States in 2020. She had a supporting role in the crime thriller The Informer as the wife of Joel Kinnaman's character.[48] Guy Lodge of Variety found "her thin role all the more glaring in the wake of her Knives Out stardom."[49] She appeared as a femme fatale in the noir crime drama The Night Clerk.[50] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said the movie had "no idea" what to do with her "blinding charisma"[51] while Katie Rife of The AV Club remarked that it would be remembered, "if at all, as a movie de Armas was way too good for."[52] She starred opposite Wagner Moura in the Netflix biopic Sergio (2020) as Carolina Larriera, a U.N. official and the partner of diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter found her "magnetic"[53] while Jessica Kiang of Variety said she imbued the part "with an intelligence and will that makes her more than just de Mello’s romantic foil."[54] De Armas reunited with Moura to play the wife of one of the Cuban Five in Olivier Assayas's Netflix spy thriller Wasp Network.[55] The movie was shot on location in Cuba; it was de Armas's first work in her home country since leaving as a teenager.[56] Glenn Kenny of The New York Times found her "superb"[57] while Jay Weissberg of Variety described her as "a joyous, bewitching presence whose career seems destined for the big time."[58]

De Armas will star in two films in late 2020. She will reunite with her Knives Out co-star Daniel Craig to play a Bond girl in Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die.[59][60] Fukunaga wrote the role of a Cuban CIA agent specifically for de Armas[61] and a replica of downtown Havana was built at London's Pinewood Studios.[12] She will star in Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller Deep Water, based upon the novel by Patricia Highsmith. She and Ben Affleck play a couple in an adulterous marriage.[62][63]

In 2021, de Armas will portray Marilyn Monroe in the Netflix biopic Blonde, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates.[64] Director Andrew Dominik noticed de Armas's performance in Knock Knock[65] and, while she went through a long casting process, Dominik promised her the role was hers after the first audition.[66] In preparation for the part, de Armas worked with a dialect coach for a year.[67][4][1]