Fact vs. fiction: The biggest myths and truths in the new Marilyn Monroe movie, 'Blonde'

Ana De Armas, left, stars in the new movie, "Blonde," a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life.Netflix, Matty Zimmerman/AP

• "Blonde," a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life, is out now on Netflix.
• The movie is based on Joyce Carol Oates' novel of the same name.

Andrew Dominik's movie on the life of Marilyn Monroe, "Blonde," is based on Joyce Carol Oates' more-than 700-page novel of the same name.

The book, published in 2000, is a work of fiction, which Oates made explicitly clear in the introduction to her novel.

"'Blonde' is a radically distilled 'life' in the form of fiction, and, for all its length, synecdoche is the principle of appropriation," she wrote. "In place of numerous foster homes in which the child Norma Jeane lived, for instance 'Blonde' explores only one, and that fictitious; in place of numerous lovers, medical crises, abortions and suicide attempts and screen performances, 'Blonde' explores only a selected symbolic few."

Similarly, the movie focuses on select details and real tragedies from the iconic actor's life while blending in fictional accounts from existing lore out of Monroe's mythology and from Oates' and Dominik's imagination.

Here are some of the biggest facts and myths in "Blonde."