Ana de Armas: 'Ghosted was palate-cleanser after intense Blonde role'
The Oscar nominee reunites with Chris Evans for the action comedy.
Ana de Armas has become one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the world in recent years – with memorable roles in the likes of Knives Out, No Time to Die, and Blonde.
Her lead performance as Marilyn Monroe in the latter film fetched her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, she revealed that she saw her new film Ghosted as a chance to do something a little different.
“I was coming from deep and intense dramatic roles and it just felt like a palate cleanser," she explained. "I wanted to do something different and unexpected and I couldn’t have timed it better.
"The time with Blonde is over, that’s behind us, this is coming out at a great time. It’s fun and just to switch it up a little bit.”
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Ghosted tells the story of farmer Cole (Chris Evans) who falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie (De Armas), only to make the shocking discovery that she's a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.
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The film is directed by Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman filmmaker Dexter Fletcher, who revealed that he too was looking for a new challenge in his directorial career.
Talking about the appeal of making an action movie, he explained: “When I choose the films that I am lucky enough to be offered and get to make, I try to choose things that I have not done before or have a different story from what I’ve told before.
“I wanted to make the action exciting for me again. I watch a lot of modern films and I don’t know how engaged I am with the action. I was very keen to see if I could do that with my movie and I believe I was successful.”
Meanwhile, Evans explained that he enjoyed the chance to play a character quite the opposite to his frequent roles as powerful soldiers and action heroes – most famously as Captain America.
"I’ve played characters for so long who are very capable action stars and it was nice to think about playing someone who was very human, someone who would react in a very unsure and incapable way," he explained.
“That was one of the appealing parts of the movie: to be able to play a character that wasn’t the hero, that didn’t know what he was doing. I think that was really fun in terms of a movie like this, these big action movies are usually swapped in terms of gender norms and it was nice to play someone who was human, grounded, and represented what I think most of us in the audience would do, which is panic!”
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De Armas has similarly been building quite the reputation as an action hero herself, with her aforementioned scene-stealing turn as Paloma in No Time to Die and a key role in the Netflix film The Gray Man.
“It’s a process of the more you learn and the more you are into it, the more you start liking it because you see the results," she said when asked about playing action roles.
"It’s empowering to learn all these things and to be able to do it yourself. To be able to actually do this stuff and pull it off is pretty cool and it feels like all the hard work was for a good reason.”
Ghosted marks the third time that Evans and de Armas have shared the big screen, having previously starred together in Knives Out and The Gray Man – and they both seem delighted to have reunited once again.
Talking about working with each other, Evans said: “I’ve come from the Marvel world where you keep going back to films with people you know. There’s something really lovely about coming back to what’s familiar and who you like to work with and something about it feels like summer camp.
“The beauty of acting is that we are chameleons, we like to try different things, different characters and different genres. If you’ve had a good experience with someone then why not try and explore all the avenues that filmmaking offers?”
De Armas added: “I would love to work with Chris again and I hope that happens. It is so weird to actually get to work with the same person twice, three times is bananas and then more than that we are just doing it to ourselves.”
When asked what they’d like to tackle next together, they both instantly said "musical", with de Armas joking that Evans would have to sing and she could dance.
Ghosted is released on Friday 21st April 2023 on Apple TV+ – you can sign up to Apple TV+ here.
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