Diamonds might be a girl’s best friend, but the hair and makeup team was certainly Ana de Armas’ during the filming of Blonde. Every day, the crew spent up to three hours turning de Armas into legendary — and tragic — screen siren Marilyn Monroe for director Andrew Dominik’s Hollywood drama. A time-lapse video of the process reveals just how intricate the transformation was.

“Authenticity was really important because everyone knows what she looks like,” makeup department head Tina Roesler Kerwin told Tudum at the Blonde premiere in Hollywood. “She has zillions of fans who will know, and will have an opinion, and we have a director who really wanted to get it right. There was a lot of pressure to make sure we got it as close as we could. So hopefully we did. We tried.”

Roesler Kerwin’s collaborator Jaime Leigh McIntosh, head of Blonde’s hair department, agreed. “It was terrifying. It was hard work,” she said. “Because you get so close and so into it that you sometimes just have to step back, have a look and go, ‘OK, I think we're on the right path.’”

Now, you can feel like you were right in the hair and makeup trailer with Roesler Kerwin and McIntosh by watching the clip, above. In under a minute, de Armas goes from bare-faced and brunette, to perfectly pink and pouty, with Monroe’s signature blonde waves. De Armas herself even helps the experts with the beauty evolution, as she is wig-capped, eyebrow-perfected and dusted with powders, potions and creams. Keep your eyes peeled for de Armas’ blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to her infamous on-screen inspiration.