Ana de Armas discussed her long friendship with Keanu Reeves and her unexpected evolution into an action star during an “In Conversation” session at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia on Friday, offering an intimate, career-spanning look at her rise from Cuba to global Hollywood star.
De Armas said she and Reeves first met when she arrived in Los Angeles more than a decade ago and landed her first role in the United States on Eli Roth. Knock Knock. “When I moved to Los Angeles, we did Knock Knock together, and at that time I barely spoke English,” she recalls. “It was a rather frustrating trip not being able to fully communicate, but we still had a great time. We bonded very well and we have a great friendship.
She described Reeves as “incredibly kind and generous”, suggesting that he was one of the first people to make her feel welcome in Hollywood. Find Reeves for Ballerinathe recently released John Wick The spin-off was particularly significant: “It came full circle. Keanu and Chad [Stahelski] I built such a beautiful world with these films, and to have him there, supporting me ten years later, meant a lot.
Discussing his role in BallerinaDe Armas said his evolution into an action star was completely unanticipated. “I never considered myself athletic or imagined I would do action films,” she said. “It started with No time to dieSO The gray man And GhostAnd Ballerina It was another level – very difficult, very demanding. But it was also an exciting character to play, and I really loved expanding this universe.
The actress then described the intense physical preparation the role required. “The training was brutal,” she said. “This went on for months before filming and continued during filming. You don’t have time to rehearse everything, so you learn and adapt on the spot. It was exhausting, but I enjoyed it. I learned so much.”
Throughout her speech, De Armas spoke about her entire career, dating back to her childhood in Cuba, where she grew up playing with neighborhood friends. “I had a very happy, very free and very social childhood,” she said. “We performed in front of our neighbors, did dances and I was even in a Spice Girls group. I always knew I wanted to be an actress. There was no plan B.”
At the Havana Theater School, she made her film debut while still a student. “Students weren’t supposed to work, but I auditioned and got the part,” she said. “I had to take a year off from school and it was hard leaving my friends, but being on set taught me more than being in class.”
After saving some money from her early films, De Armas made the bold choice to move to Madrid, Spain on her own at age 18 to seek bigger opportunities. “I had saved some money from the films I had made in Cuba – I think it was 300 euros,” she recalls. “At that time in Cuba, 300 euros was a lot of money, so I thought it was going to be enough. And then I got to Spain and realized it wasn’t going to last long.” She slept on a friend’s couch for a few months before landing a role in a hit Spanish TV series, which quickly made her a household name. This success brought him glory, but also frustration. “Thanks to this show, I’ve been playing the same kind of girl roles for years,” she said. “I love Spanish cinema and Spanish directors, but I wasn’t getting the film work I wanted. That’s when I felt I had to leave.”
She took another big step by moving to Los Angeles. “I moved with three suitcases and my dog,” she said. “I spoke no English, zero. It was the most humiliating thing I’d ever done. No one knew who I was, and my work in Spain and Cuba didn’t exist there. But I decided that if I wanted it to work, I had to give it my all.”
She felt her breakthrough truly came with Denis Villeneuve’s film Blade Runner 2049which she called “a dream”.
“Working with Denis, Ryan [Gosling]Harrison Ford and cinematographer Roger Deakins were incredible,” she said. “Denis is one of my favorite directors, very thoughtful, very sensitive. The way he communicates, the way he sits and works on each scene with his actors, makes the process so special. I felt like a kid again on set.
From there came No time to die. “Those fifteen minutes on screen changed my life,” she said. “Cary Fukunaga called me and said, ‘There’s no script yet, but there’s going to be a Cuban agent.’ And I said, ‘If there’s a Cuban agent in a James Bond movie, it’ll be me.’ » She added with a laugh that she had just finished filming the Andrew Dominick film. Blond and carried some of her Marilyn Monroe voice into her role in the Bond film. “Paloma still had a bit of Marilyn in her – it came out naturally,” she said. “That made it even more fun.”
His portrait of Monroe in Blond earned her an Oscar nomination and, she says, transformed her as an actress. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but also the most beautiful,” she said. “Andre [Dominik] pushed me to go places I didn’t know I could go. It required nine months of research and preparation: learning Marilyn’s voice, her movements, her energy. It changed the way I approached the game.”
Toward the end of her hour-long appearance, De Armas reflected on her continued search for thought-provoking material — and the new type of typecasting she now occasionally faces. She said that after years of struggling to escape predictable roles early in her career, she was aware of the risk of being typecast again, this time because of her recent success in action films.
“Sometimes what the industry offers is not what I want to do,” she said. “I’m the one who has to chase what’s next. Sometimes I feel like people think Blond It was a fluke, and somehow I just did it. But I’ve always been the one who looks for what I want to do instead of waiting for what they offer. I’m not here to play it safe.
The Red Sea Film Festival continues until December 13.
