Ana de Armas played the breakout role of Marta Cabrera in 2019's critical and financial hit KNIVES OUT but it was a part that de Armas nearly passed on.
In an interview with "Flaunt", de Armas revealed she almost passed on her career-making role since the only description for the character she received at first was "Latina, caretaker, & pretty".
"Things could have been very different. I really pay attention to what that little description is. I'm sure whoever did it wasn't thinking about what that meant but for me, I was just like, 'Oh no, I'm not doing this!' What do you mean-caretaker, Latina, pretty?' I'm very proud of being Cuban and being Latina and I will play the most Latina any Latina has ever played Latina. But it also doesn't interest me that much, all the time. It gets very boring, very quickly and I want to do other things… and even if you're playing a Latina, not all Latinas are the same… I want to think and believe that I can play anybody, anywhere in the world because the stories I want to tell are universal. I want to be able to tell any story."
Thankfully for de Armas, the actress resisted her initial thought of turning down the role and decided to wait until she had read the screenplay for KNIVES OUT, after which she discovered just how complex and heartfelt the role of Marta the nurse was:
"My character was a diamond. When they sent the whole script and I read the whole thing I realized 'oh my gosh I have to do this. Johnson is a genius. Sometimes humor… sits better with people and people are more open, it resonates more when [the message] is straightforward. I think in this case, it was a very smart thing to do."
Once de Armas accepted the role of Marta, the up and coming actress found herself in the position of a newbie on a set filled with an established cast of actors with decades more experience in the industry than her. According to de Armas, trying to fit in with such an intimidating group of performers was no easy task:
"I was really nervous, I was terrified. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me… you are working with these people who you've been watching on the screen for so many years, my whole life, and you don't know what they're going to be like. You don't know how they like to work… how much you can approach [them]…what their boundaries are. And then my own insecurities as an actor-my English, my accent. Everything was making me very nervous at the beginning."
In KNIVES OUT, a detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family. The film proved to be a critical and financial success, earning a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $309.2 million at the worldwide box office. The movie also stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Riki Lindhome.
I bet de Armas is happy that she took in the script for KNIVES OUT before turning down the role because it really became a star-making turn for the actress. Can YOU think of anyone else that could've played the role?