Jamie Lee Curtis is recalling her first impression of Ana de Armas.
The two both starred in the 2019 ensemble film Knives Out, which was de Armas' big breakout project, leading to parts in No Time to Die, The Gray Man and as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming Blonde. In a new ELLE cover story about de Armas, Curtis said she thought her Cuban-born costar, now 34, was an "unsophisticated young woman" at first.
"I assumed — and I say this with real embarrassment — because she had come from Cuba, that she had just arrived. I made an assumption that she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman," Curtis told ELLE. "That first day, I was like, 'Oh, what are your dreams?' "
Curtis quickly became impressed by de Armas on set, however.
She said of de Armas' personality, "She is not as fancy as maybe the advertisements would have you believe. She leans in, interested; talking to her is kind of give-and-take. She's curious and asks a lot of questions."
De Armas talks about Cuba and diversity in Hollywood during the ELLE interview. She moved to Los Angeles at 26 after having done a few Cuban films and taking television parts in Spain before that.
She said, "I feel sometimes that I'm not part of the Cuban artist community, and then I was in Spain and I feel like I'm not part of the community there — especially because in Spain, I did more TV than movies. And then I'm here, and I feel like I'm not there yet either. You know? Am I part of the community? I barely know anybody."
Back in February 2021, Curtis wrote a glowing tribute to de Armas for Time when the actress was among the magazine's Time100 Next list that year.