Adrien Brody predicts ‘there’ll be some controversy’ with Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe biopic

Adrien Brody has predicted that his forthcoming film Blonde will create “some controversy” over its retelling of Marilyn Monroe’s life and death.

In a new video interview on Wednesday (22 June), Brody reflected on his career highlights, including becoming the youngest person to win the Best Actor Academy award for his performance in 2002’s The Pianist.

Speaking to Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Brody recalled being “in awe” of his fellow nominees, including Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day Lewis, at the ceremony that year.

“I’d been working very hard but I was really a nobody and I hadn’t won for any previous categories,” the actor continued, adding, “I wasn’t confident that that would happen.”

Towards the end of clip, Brody joked “there’ll be some controversy” around Netflix’s fictionalised biopic about Monroe, which is scheduled for release in the same year as biopics of Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, “the father of the atomic bomb” J Robert Oppenheimer, and the two New York Times journalists whose investigation into Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement.

Brody appears opposite Ana de Armas’s Monroe as the Hollywood star’s husband, playwright Arthur Miller. The film has already been the subject of controversy due to its NC-17 rating (one above an R-rating) in the US, causing fans to speculate that it will include sexually explicit scenes.

“It’s a demanding movie,” director Andrew Dominik told Screen Daily in February this year. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f***ing audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”

In addition to Blonde, Brody will also be seen in the new Wes Anderson comedy Asteroid City, Tom George’s thriller See How They Run with Sam Rockwell, and John Tengrove’s Manodrome with Jesse Eisenberg.

Brody is currently the star of HBO drama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, in which he plays NBA team Los Angeles Lakers’s former coach Pat Riley. He also appeared as Josh Aaronson in the last season of Adam McKay’s hit Succession.

Blonde is slated for release in autumn this year.