ANA DE ARMAS from Knives Out
A running gag in Knives Out – the whodunit from director Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) – centres 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 actor, 31, who joins Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans and LaKeith Stanfield in the ensemble movie 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 actor, who moved to Los Angeles in 2O14 and was quickly cast in blockbusters like War Dogs and Blade Runner 2O49. ‘I was trying to absorb as much as I could.’ Next, she’ll shed Marta’s frumpy garb for more flattering fashion, playing Marilyn Monroe in biopic Blonde and a major role in the next Bond film.