Bond girl Ana de Armas fled Cuba to become a movie star
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ana de Armas, who stars in the upcoming "Bond 25," fled Communist Cuba to become a movie star.
De Armas, 31, who has Spanish grandparents, obtained a passport when she turned 18 and moved to Madrid with her life savings, which amounted to just about $170.
“I felt like I wanted more. I’ve always been very ambitious and I always knew I wanted something else," she told The Sun. “Of course, I didn’t know that 200 euros was nothing, because in Cuba it was a lot. It was what I had been saving from work as an actress. I told my parents that I’d be back when the money ran out. Of course, that didn’t happen — my money ran out in a week and I didn’t go back. It was the best decision I ever made.”
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She explained, “I come from a modest family. We lived without luxuries, with the basics, just enough to eat every day and go to the beach some summers. Thanks to my parents’ honesty, I was always conscious of what we could and couldn’t have. My brother and I would go out into the street to play. We didn’t have phones or internet or even DVD players. Anything.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ana de Armas fled Cuba to become an actress in Spain. Since then, she's had a major breakthrough in mainstream Hollywood films and will appear as Paloma in the upcoming "Bond 25." (Getty)
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De Armas said one reason she left Cuba is that she knew if she stayed, she would have had to take a menial job to pay for her nationally-funded education.
“I had to weigh the value of having a degree in my hands or leaving at that moment in search of my future. I always pay attention to my intuition — so I left," she said. “I left to try my luck. It could have turned out for the good or for the bad. I was gambling everything, but it was a risk I needed to take. I had there, in front of my eyes, former students of the school, graduates who were not working or who didn’t have any money because they had to perform social service."
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“I would turn on the television there and see nothing more than old reruns of soap operas or things produced by the [state broadcaster] Cuban Institute of Radio and Television that were of poor quality, due to the low budgets,” she said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It was a smart move: de Armas became a star in Spain after getting cast in thriller "El Internado." Stateside, she's appeared in "Bladerunner 2049" and "War Dogs." She'll also star as Paloma in the upcoming "Bond 25."