Saturday, March 23, 2019

Ana de Armas Is Complex and Incredible in Blade Runner 2049

The actress delivers one of the great breakout roles of the year.

Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s twisted vision of a smog-choked, dystopian Los Angeles roamed by androids called “replicants,” has long been recognized as a classic of the sci-fi genre. Startling visuals and a brooding Harrison Ford fueled the film’s cult status, but Daryl Hannah and Sean Young delivered the otherworldly performances that have kept viewers transfixed since it was first released in 1982.

Zooey Grossman

When Ana de Armas got the call that she had been cast in the sequel, the Cuban actress, who arrived in Los Angeles just a few years ago (speaking not a lick of English), knew it was a game changer. “My phone was blowing up!” she exclaims. “I was calling all my friends in Spain, my parents in Cuba. It was nonstop for five hours.”

Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Arrival) and starring Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, and Ford reprising his role as Deckard, Blade Runner 2049 is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year. The plot is a closely guarded secret, and de Armas is careful not to give too much away. “She’s very important in K’s life. She’s his best friend, his lover, his cheerleader,” de Armas says of her character, Joi, and her connection to Gosling’s Officer K. “I wish I could tell you everything, but there’s probably someone on the line ready to kill me.” She can, however, say what it’s like to work with Gosling. “He is probably the most humble person I’ve met in my life. He’s very shy. But at the same time, he’s very funny.” And she’ll also disclose the competitive hijinks that Gosling and Ford engaged in during the five-month shoot in Budapest: “Whose trailer is bigger?” she laughs. “Who’s got more plants? Who put a red carpet in front of their door?!”

“I’ve tried to choose roles where women are not just reacting or waiting for something to happen.”

Although she had achieved considerable success as an actress in Spain, de Armas had her sights on Hollywood. “I’m ambitious in a good way,” she explains. “I’ve never wanted to settle as long as I’ve thought there’s more.” With her tenacity, hustle, captivating screen presence, and effortless chemistry with costars, the twenty-nine-year-old began booking parts opposite Keanu Reeves, Edgar Ramírez, Miles Teller, and now Gosling. And although many of those have been wife or girlfriend roles, de Armas’s characters were hardly dutiful and decorative. “I’ve tried to choose roles where women are not just reacting or waiting for something to happen,” she says.

Next up, de Armas will star in the action-thriller Three Seconds alongside Joel Kinnaman, Clive Owen, and Rosamund Pike. But for now, she’s taking it all in stride. “My father used to say, ‘Take the long view and short steps,’ ” she says, “and that’s what I try to do in my life every day.”

This article appears in the October '17 issue of Esquire.

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