Don’t watch Blonde if you’re looking to see the authentic story of Marilyn Monroe’s life, as that’s not the movie that the filmmakers were looking to create. Released on Netflix in September, Blonde stars Ana de Armas as Monroe, and though it’s inspired by true events, the film is a fictionalized take that focuses primarily on the darker side of the Hollywood icon’s life, such as her mistreatment, addiction, and depression. The film is based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates, and Andrew Dominik wrote and directed the feature.

There have been some complaints leveled against Blonde as a movie that doesn’t tell the full story of Norma Jeane Mortenson, aka Marilyn Monroe. In a new chat with Variety, de Armas speaks about the frustration she feels whenever she hears this criticism. The actress, who has generated some Oscar buzz with her performance, says that too many viewers went into the film expecting a more traditional biopic, but that just isn’t the story that she was looking to have told under the direction of Dominik. As de Armas explains:

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“What has been tough for the audiences to understand about the movie, the emotional truth is so powerful in the film that it’s hard to separate that from, it’s not a biopic. So, for them, I’ve heard people like, ‘You missed this part of her life! You didn’t touch these other moments, and she was not only sad or depressed.’ And I’m like, ‘I know, but, we’re telling THAT story.”

Blonde Sparked Backlash Upon Its Release

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Writer-director Andrew Dominik also recently spoke about these kinds of complaints people had about Blonde. While at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Dominik suggested that a lot of the backlash was from viewers angry that Monroe wasn’t depicted as an “empowered woman.”

“Now we’re living in a time where it’s important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman,” Dominik said. “That’s what they want to see, and if you’re not showing them that, it upsets them. Which is kind of strange, because she’s dead. The movie doesn’t make any difference in one way or another.”

He added, “What they really mean is that the film exploited their memory of her, their image of her, which is fair enough. But that’s the whole idea of the movie. It’s trying to take the iconography of her life and put it into service of something else, it’s trying to take things that you’re familiar with, and turning the meaning inside out. But that’s what they don’t want to see.”

You can stream Blonde, which is rated NC-17, on Netflix.