Ana de Armas has revealed that she almost turned down her role in new film Knives Out, owing to the original bio she received for her character.
The actor plays Marta Cabrera in the film, a Latina immigrant who acts as a carer for a mystery novel writer, the head of a wealthy family.
- READ MORE: ‘Knives Out’ review: Rian Johnson returns to fold with thrilling, expertly-crafted whodunit
De Armas has now revealed that her initial impression of the film wasn’t to her taste, and took a dislike to the short, stereotypical biography she received for Marta.
Speaking to the LA Times, de Armas revealed that Marta was simply described as “Caretaker, Latina, pretty.”
“I’ve seen that before,” she says of her initial thoughts on the portrayal of the character.
“‘Latina’, I have no problem with, because I’m Cuban and very proud to be Cuban,” she continued. “But that [description] didn’t say anything to me. There’s no information at all about her character.”
She goes on to reveal that, after reading the script for the film, she realised that Marta is, in reality, a central figure in the film with a strong storyline.
“She’s the one who knows all the secrets and who’s actually mourning the death of her friend,” she says of Marta’s journey in the film. “I had so much to play with. Rian [Johnson, director] gave me all the tools to make it work.”
In a four-star NME review of Knives Out, Olly Richards says: “Everything about this film is a hoot. Johnson’s control of so many characters and so many plot twists is extremely impressive, even more so for being so unshowy. He gets out of the film’s way and lets his story go haring off in all sorts of directions until it winds up at an ending that makes sense of a whole lot of madness that precedes it.”