Andrew Dominik isn’t quite done unpacking the polarized response to his pseudo-biographical portrait of Marilyn Monroe in Netflix’s Blonde, saying the “outrage” with which it was met by some audiences “surprised” him. In a Sunday appearance at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, the Australian filmmaker defended himself against claims that he had exploited Monroe in the movie, saying, “This is kind of strange because she is dead. The movie doesn’t make any difference to her in one way or another.” Going on to blame the movie’s negative reception on American audiences’ inability to digest anything but a “celebration” of their most legendary figures, Dominik added, “We’re living at a time where it’s very important to present women as empowered, and they want to reinvent Marilyn Monroe as an empowered woman, you know, that’s what they want to see. And if you’re not showing them that then it upsets them. Americans don’t really like you to monkey with their myths too much.”