You know what they say when you assume…
Jamie Lee Curtis admitted she thought Ana de Armas was new to the US and “inexperienced” when she first met the actress on the set of “Knives Out” in October 2018.
“I assumed – and I say this with real shame – because she had come from Cuba, that she had just arrived,” Curtis, 63, revealed in an interview with Elle magazine.
“I assumed she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman. That first day I thought, ‘Oh, what are your dreams?’”
The “Freaky Friday” actress claimed she was “so impressed with De Armas that she wanted to introduce her to Steven Spielberg to play Maria in ‘West Side Story’.”
She also planned to introduce her to her godchildren Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal, but was surprised to find that the 34-year-old “Deep Water” actress already knew Jake.
Curtis added to the star of “The Gray Man”: “She’s not as fancy as the ads might have you believe. She leans forward with interest; talking to her is kind of a give and take. She’s curious and asks a lot of questions.”
De Armas, who will star in Marilyn Monroe’s biopic “Blonde” this fall, grew up in a Cuban beach town before moving to Havana. At the age of 14, she enrolled in drama school and did three Cuban films. Four years later, she moved to Spain, where she starred in several TV roles.
In 2014, when she was 26, she made the jump to Los Angeles, where she had to start from scratch because directors didn’t care about her previous experience. She learned English in just three months.
By the time Curtis met de Armas, she had already starred in such films as “Knock Knock” alongside Keanu Reeves, “Blade Runner 2049” with Ryan Gosling, and “War Dogs” with Jonah Hill and Miles Teller.
In the same interview with Elle, de Armas claimed that the constant media coverage of her relationship with actor Ben Affleck caused her to flee Los Angeles.
“This is not the place for me to be,” she told herself. “It got a bit too much. There is no escape. There is no way out.”
The ‘Knives Out’ actress explained that the city made her “anxious” because there is “always the feeling of something you don’t have, that something is missing.”
De Armas dated the 49-year-old Gone Girl actor during the coronavirus pandemic. However, by January 2021, the “Deep Water” co-stars broke up after nearly a year together.
Since then, the Armas has moved on with Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis and they live together in New York City.