Woman Crush Wednesday: Ana de Armas Will Thrill You in ‘The Gray Man’

Summer 2022 is flying by, but we’re here to offer you a nice little reprieve in the form of your weekly Woman Crush Wednesday! Take a breath and settle in as you celebrate the laudable ladies whose amazing acting completely transforms and enhances the latest streaming movies and TV shows into hits we all know and love. This week, we’re talking about a wonderful woman who has been consistently killing it everywhere from Cuba to Spain to the United States since she first started acting professionally 16 years ago. She’s an international icon who gives increasingly nuanced, thoughtful, and unforgettable performances with every year, and for whom the sky seems to be the limit. So without further ado, give it up for your WCW, the astounding Ana de Armas!

WHO’S THAT GAL: Ana de Armas

WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: De Armas will play Dani Miranda in the upcoming Netflix Original title The Gray Man, which premieres on the platform this Friday, July 22. The highly-anticipated action-thriller film follows a CIA black ops mercenary (Ryan Gosling) known by the names of Court Gentry and Sierra Six, who has just accidentally uncovered some dark agency secrets, immediately making him a prime target for international assassins. At the same time, Court is being hunted down by his psychotic former colleague Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), who is willing to do anything to be the one to take Court out once and for all.

In addition to Gosling, Evans, and de Armas (whose Dani is a fellow agent assisting Court in his mission), this heart-pounding film also stars Jessica Henwick, Regé-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Alfre Woodard, Dhanush, and Billy Bob Thornton. Make sure to catch their great work by streaming The Gray Man as soon as it drops this week, only on Netflix.

WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: De Armas’s professional onscreen career began in 2006 when she played Marie in Spanish-Cuban romance adventure film Una rosa de Francia (AKA Virgin Rose), acting alongside the well-known Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría. After this impressive start, she swiftly picked up more Spanish-language projects, earning recurring roles in TV shows like El Internado and Hispania, la leyenda, as well as appearing in feature films like 2007 sci-fi Madrigal, 2009 coming-of-age comedy-drama Sex, Party and Lies, 2011 horror-thriller Blind Alley, and 2014 romantic-comedy For a Handful of Kisses. 

However, it was her role as Bel in the 2015 American psychological thriller Knock Knock, in which she acted alongside Keanu Reeves, that helped expose the actress to an even wider international audience. From there, she swiftly accumulated a diverse array of roles in films like 2016 thriller Exposed, 2016 sports bio-pic Hands of Stone, 2016 dark crime-comedy War Dogs, and 2017 action-thriller Overdrive. De Armas then cemented herself as a household name across the world starring alongside Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 in 2017 before once again making a major splash with her star turn as Marta Cabrera in critically-acclaimed 2019 murder-mystery movie Knives Out.

Since then, she has continued to crush it, starring in even more feature films like 2020 biographical-drama Sergio, 2020 crime-drama The Night Clerk, 2021 James Bond spy blockbuster No Time to Die, and 2022 erotic psychological-thriller Deep Water. With all of this under her belt and even more excitement on the way, it’s clear that de Armas has made a name for herself as a versatile, hard-working, and multi-talented actress with a long and successful career ahead of her, and we can’t wait to see what else she has in store for the years to come.

WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Luckily, you won’t have to wait much longer to see more from de Armas, as the actress already has two big-name projects confirmed to be in the works and coming out within the next year. The first is Netflix Original biographical mystery-drama Blonde, which stars de Armas as Norma Jean and follows her on a fictionalized chronicle of her inner-life and how she became the bombshell we all remember today as Marilyn Monroe. You can also see her star in Apple TV+ Original romantic action-adventure film Ghosted, which boasts an impressive cast that includes her increasingly frequent collaborator Chris Evans in addition to actors Adrien Brody, Mike Moh, Amy Sedaris, Tim Blake Nelson, Tate Donovan, and Mustafa Shakir.

For even more from de Armas in the meantime, be sure to follow her on Instagram ASAP so that you never miss a moment from your world-renowned WCW!