Who is Ana de Armas? Meet the James Bond No Time To Die actress who plays Paloma
A new Bond film means new Bond girls - but this time, they’ve been updated from the tired tropes of old.
No Time to Die, the 25th Bond film and Daniel Craig’s last in the title role, stars Lashana Lynch as Nomi, a new 00 agent, and Ana de Armas as Paloma, a CIA agent who assists Bond on his mission.
De Armas recently told Vanity Fair that her character was created for the film by director Cary Joji Fukunaga specifically for the actress at the last minute, and written entirely by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
“You could also tell that Phoebe was in there," she said. "There was that humor and spikiness so specific to her. My character feels like a real woman.”
P A L O M A ✨🍸💋 “No Time To Die”
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So who is Ana de Armas? Here are eight things you didn’t know about the Bond star…
1. She’s Cuban-Spanish
Ana de Armas was born in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba, near the capital of Havana.
Her grandparents are Spanish on her maternal side, and the actress obtained Spanish citizenship through them and moved to Madrid at the age of 18.
007 James Bond 25: No Time To Die Character Posters
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2. She learned English in four months
De Armas learned English in four months - “Because my life depended on it,” she told Vanity Fair.
After moving from Spain to Hollywood at 25, de Armas said she was so determined to get auditions, there were moments she didn’t fully understand the dialogue she was saying.
“The first time I read for a part, I had no clue what ‘I beg your pardon’ was,” she told Vanity Fair.
About last night! 🌸♥️✨ @knivesout PREMIERE!!! @chanelofficial
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“I thought it was really angry, like ‘I beg your pardon!’ Like I am going to take your pardon. And every person in the room was like, ‘She has no clue what she’s saying right now.’
“But the thing is, I knew exactly what was happening in the scene.”
3. She has wanted to act since she was young
De Armas has wanted to act since she was a teenager and attended the National Theatre School of Cuba for four years.
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She told the Hollywood Foreign Press: “I knew I wanted to be an actress but you always need [someone] to discover you.
“In about my second year of school, Spanish director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón cast me and that was my first movie.”
4. She’s a Golden Globe nominee
De Armas received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Knives Out.
The 2019 murder mystery/comedy, directed by Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), stars de Armas as Marta, a nurse caught up in a complicated murder plot.
De Armas won praise from critics for her performance, with the LA Times calling her “terrific” and AP saying she “seizes” the film.
5. She started acting in Spain before moving to Hollywood
De Armas found success in Spain after moving there at the age of 18.
After a role in the Spanish film Una rosa de Francia in 2006, she won a role on the television series El Internado (The Boarding School), which she was on from 2007-2010.
De Armas told Build Series in 2016 that while she was still living in Madrid, she auditioned for the Spanish-language film Hands of Stone, which convinced her to make the move to Hollywood in 2014.
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6. Her breakout role was in Blade Runner 2049
You may recognise de Armas from Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic.
De Armas played Joi, the holographic artificial intelligence girlfriend of Ryan Gosling’s character K.
The role marked a breakthrough for de Armas, with the Hollywood Reporter branding the actress “Hollywood’s Next Big Thing” in 2017.
7. She is playing Marilyn Monroe in an upcoming film
De Armas’s next major role after No Time to Die will be in Netflix’s Blonde, a biopic about the life of Marilyn Monroe.
Directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James) reportedly handpicked de Armas to play the role.
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She told Vanity Fair: “I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said ‘It’s you,’ but I had to audition for everyone else.
“I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe.”
De Armas married Spanish actor Marc Clotet in 2011 and divorced him in 2013.
She’s quiet about her personal life now, telling Vanity Fair: “I’ve had company[(in LA], but it’s been the wrong company so I prefer to be alone.”
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