The actress Ana de Armas has been plastered all over headlines recently?and not because she's one of the most talented rising stars in Hollywood. No, she's the talk of the town because of her
romance with Ben Affleck
.
Affleck, 47, and de Armas, 32, met while playing a married couple on the brinks in
Deep Water
, an
"
erotic thriller
" directed by Adrian Lyne (
Fatal Attraction
)
. The new couple has spent the start of 2020 in a whirlwind vacation tour? first visiting de Armas's native Cuba, and then heading to a romantic getaway in Costa Rica.
Per
People
, the couple were also overheard speaking Spanish together, as
Affleck is
fluent in the language
.
On April 30, the couple became "Instagram official" with a photo on de Armas's account, showing them celebrating her 32nd birthday.
But, as one of Hollywood's most exciting rising stars, de Armas's romantic decisions are
hardly
the most interesting thing about her. Simply put, there is
so
much else to know about this captivating Cuban actress.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 2014, de Armas has had a steady presence in U.S. cinema. She played Miles Teller's girlfriend in
War Dogs
(2016)
, and an
android named Joi
in
Blade Runner 2049
(2017). She became a household name with
K
nives Out
(2019)
,
and she's not going back.
In 2020, de Armas is set to appear in five (count 'em!) movies. Five! There's
the Bond flick
No Time to Die
,
the Marilyn Monroe biopic
Blonde
, the war drama
Sergio
, the crime film
The Night Clerk
, and the sexual thriller
Dark Water
.
We
certainly think she's going to be the next big thing. But don't just take
our
word for it?her
Knives Out
co-star Jamie Lee Curtis sees her name in lights, too. “She is remarkable. She’s going to be like Sophia Loren, one of those rare crossover worldwide sensations,"
Curtis told
Vanity Fair
.
Here's what you need to know about Ana de Armas.
VALERIE MACON
//
Getty Images
She's extremely close to her family in Cuba.
De Armas was born on April 30, 1988 (a Taurus!) in Santa Cruze del Norte, a seaside town on the north shore of Cuba. She had one brother?and dreams of becoming an actress. At 14, she enrolled in Cuba's National School of Theater. She made her acting debut in the Cuba-set 2006 movie
Una rosa de Francia.
Today, De Armas owns a house in Cuba, which is where most of her friends and family still live. When she visits home, she brings provisions for her loved ones. "My suitcases go full of clothing or medicine or supplies?whatever people need?and come back empty,"
De Armas told
Vanity Fair
.
De Armas and Affleck were recently
spotted vacationing in Cuba
.
She moved to Spain when she was 18.
De Armas's maternal grandparents were from Spain, so she was able to inherit Spanish citizenship through them. At 18, she
left Cuba with $300 to pursue an acting career
in Spain. Almost immediately, de Armas was cast on the
boarding school-set thriller
El Internado
,
a massive hit that ran for seven seasons.
She's been married before.
De Armas married Marc Clotet, a Spanish actor and model, in 2011.
They split in 2013
.
Carlos Alvarez
//
Getty Images
She was also linked to talent agent Franklin Latt,
per
Vanity Fair
.
She learned English in four months.
Hand of Stone
,
De Armas's first international production, broadened her mind to opportunities outside of Spain.
"That was the project that made me think it was a good time to move to the U.S.," she
said in an interview with
Build
. So, in 2014, she moved to L.A. to try her hand at Hollywood.
The only issue? De Armas didn't speak English. "I like adventure and challenge, I guess," she told
Build
.
Her first step upon landing in California was enrolling in intensive English language course and sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day. "People ask, 'How did you learn English so quickly?' I'm like, 'Because my
life
depended on it,'" she told
Vanity Fair
.
De Armas said she didn't try to achieve fluency before auditioning. Instead, she learned on the job. “I was clear that the reason I was here was not to get a degree in English,” she told
The Telegram
. “I forced them to send me out to auditions and meetings, even though I couldn’t understand half of it.” She landed her first English-language role in
Knock Knock
opposite Keanu Reeves.
She almost turned down her breakout role in
Knives Out.
"My house. My rules. My coffee." To anyone who's seen
Knives Out
, Rian Johnson's clever and
Clue-
like
whodunnit, that utterance of that line will
immediately conjure up a triumphant vision of Marta, de Armas's character?but no spoilers.
Marta is a kind caretaker surrounded by money-hungry vipers?also known as Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer)'s close relatives, played by A-Listers like Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig. Then a relative unknown, de Armas swept audiences away with her performance, and was
nominated for a Golden Globe
.
And to think! It almost didn't happen. Initially, de Armas was reluctant to take the part because, from the description alone, Marta seemed like a stereotype.
“The [script] description said Marta was a caretaker, Latina, and pretty. That’s it. And I’m like, What? I’m not doing that,”
she told
Vanity Fair
. “Because for a Latina in a setup like this, with a wealthy family and this cast, all I thought was, What am I going to do here? I’ll probably be standing in a corner, not having much to say.”
Upon reading the entire script, however, she learned that not only is Marta the movie's central character?she's also the best (in our opinion, at least).
She has an adorable pup.
Take a
real hard
look at Elvis, de Armas's adorable Maltese. This pup may be the world's cutest dog.
She's your next Bond Girl.
De Armas will reunite with
Knives Out
co-star Daniel Craig in the James Bond movie
No Time to Die
, now set to come out in November. She assures us that her character, Paloma, isn't the typical "Bond Girl," either femme fatale or in desperate need of saving.
“I wouldn’t say she’s ordinary, because when she needs to perform her job, she does,” de Armas
told the
L.A. Times
. “But [she] is flawed. She says what she feels, she’s nervous, she’s scared. It’s human. When I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, wait?I can be a Bond girl. I’m that. I’m that messy.’ That’s what felt so attractive, on top of what she’s actually doing in the story, which is another step toward giving women a more powerful and strong place in the films.”
And she's your next Marilyn Monroe.
De Armas, a brunette from Cuba, was confident she could transform into the U.S.'s most iconic blonde bombshell for the movie
Blonde
?and so was Andrew Dominik, the movie's director.
"I only had to audition once and Andrew said, 'It's you,'"
de Armas told
Vanity Fair
. "I had to audition for everyone else. The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it."
This very well could be her defining role, and she knows it. "Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking," de Armas said. The movie's release date is TBD?but we'll be there, saying hello to Norma Jean.
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Elena Nicolaou is the former culture editor at Oprah Daily.