"I think women, we are very interesting. We have a lot to say and sometimes it's frustrating how all the lead parts are for men. I don't mind playing someone's girlfriend or wife if I have something to say, if I bring something to the picture, if I can be strong and powerful and say smart things. If not, then it's just boring."
Ana Celia de Armas Caso (born 30 April 1988 in Havana) is a Cuban-Spanish actress.
After studying acting in Cuba, she moved to Spain, where she started her professional career. She obtained Spanish citizenship as a result of her grandparents being Spanish. Her first major role was in the TV show El internado in 2007, at 19 years old. Eventually, she moved to the United States in 2013 to work in Hollywood.
She's best known internationally for her roles as Bel in Knock Knock, the holographic girlfriend Joi in Blade Runner 2049, Marta Cabrera in Knives Out and Paloma in the 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die. For her performance as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Film roles:
- Knock Knock (2015) as Bel
- Hands of Stone (2016) as Felicidad
- War Dogs (2016) as Iz
- Exposed (2016) as Isabel De La Cruz
- Blade Runner 2049 (2017) as Joi
- Yesterday (2019) as Roxanne note
- Knives Out (2019) as Marta Cabrera
- Sergio (2020) as Carolina Larriera
- The Night Clerk (2020) as Andrea Rivera
- No Time to Die (2021) as Paloma
- Deep Water (2022) as Melinda Van Allen
- The Gray Man (2022) as Dani Miranda
- Blonde (2022) as Marilyn Monroe note
- Ghosted (2023) as Sadie Rhodes
- Ballerina (2025) as Rooney/Ballerina
TV roles:
- El internado (2007–2010) as Carolina "Carol"
- Hispania (2010–2012) as Nerea
Associated tropes:
- Action Girl: No Time to Die turns her into one, as CIA agent Paloma. Mere weeks after that film's release, she was cast as the John Wick character Ballerina in her own spinoff film, and before that one was even made she headlined Ghosted as another badass CIA lady (who also gets her Kicking Ass in All Her Finery moment just like Paloma again).
- Dye Hard: She often dyes her naturally brown hair blonde. However, she does have films in which she appears as a brunette.
- Ms. Fanservice: She has appeared nude, scantily clad or in sex scenes a number of times. For example, in No Time to Die she spent her entire screentime in a backless dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline.
- Playing Against Type:
- Most of her roles are as pure-hearted heroines. However, in Knock Knock she plays one of two young women who rape the main character.
- Her roles almost always have been as some sort of Ms. Fanservice, but in Knives Out she gets to play a Chaste Heroine.
- Plays Great Ethnics: She's been cast as a Spaniard, a Dominican woman, Marilyn Monroe... and so forth. Funnily enough, this is a crucial plot point in Knives Out, with the bigoted Thrombeys never bothering to work out where Marta is from. note
- Romance on the Set: She began dating Ben Affleck on the set of the Adrian Lyne film Deep Water. They called it quits a year later, well before the movie would even be released due to COVID-related delays.
- Star-Making Role: Although she was already somewhat well established by that point, the role of Marta Cabrera in Knives Out upped her profile significantly, even earning her a Golden Globe nomination.
- Those Two Actors: She has been reunited with certain co-stars on multiple different projects:
- Keanu Reeves in Knock Knock, Exposed, and the upcoming Ballerina.
- Édgar Ramírez in Hands of Stone and Wasp Network
- Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049 and The Gray Man.
- Daniel Craig in Knives Out and No Time to Die
- Chris Evans in Knives Out, The Gray Man, and Ghosted.
- Wagner Moura in Wasp Network, Sergio and The Gray Man.
- Adrien Brody in Blonde and Ghosted.
- Typecasting: She has her agent refuse scripts where she'd be a Spicy Latina because she doesn't want this to happen and she views it as a stereotype. She almost didn't read for Knives Out when Marta was initially described as a "pretty Latina caretaker".
- What Could Have Been: She read for the part of Selina Kyle in The Batman before Zoë Kravitz was cast.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: She's been noted for her eyes that are unusually golden instead of just green-yellow.
