Ana de Armas has defended Blonde‘s explicit scenes, claiming they’re harder for people to watch than they were for her to make.

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In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actress – who stars in the Netflix film as Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe – discussed some of the movie’s more uncomfortable moments.

These range from sexual assault to abortion, as well as a scene in which Monroe performs oral sex on President John F. Kennedy. However, de Armas made it clear that she always felt safe on set with director and writer Andrew Dominik.

“It’s harder for people to watch [those scenes] than for me to make them, because I understood what I was doing and I felt very protected and safe,’ she said.

“I didn’t feel exploited because I was in control. I made that decision. I knew what the movie was doing. I trusted my director. I felt like I was in a safe environment.

The actress also spoke of the importance of having an intimacy coordinator on set, saying: “She was very helpful. But I wouldn’t even say these scenes were more difficult than any other scene. It was just a part of a whole story.

“I knew exactly what the shot was going to be. I knew exactly what was going to be seen, what was not going to be seen, and it felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Earlier this month, de Armas said that she didn’t “understand” why the film had been given an NC-17 rating in the US.

“I didn’t understand why that happened,” she said. “I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than Blonde.”

Blonde is now available to stream on Netflix.