Hollywood v. Madonna: ‘A bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men’

On November 18, after announcing her intention to resume it in July, Madonna spoke again about the biopic she has been working on for more than four years and which she put on hold in 2023 to focus on her latest tour, The Celebration Tour, postponed in the United States due to a serious bacterial infection she contracted. Although, judging by what she posted on Instagram, it seems more likely that the works on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona will end before filming even begins. “After struggling for days in LA, listening to producers and agents tell me why I couldn’t make my film, I realized that everything in my life is going to be challenged. No easy rides for me. I guess I should be grateful. If forces me to think outside the box. I did not have a normal life. I cannot make this in the normal way,” she confessed to her nearly 20 million followers.

To the surprise of her fans, Madonna also posed a question that evidences the uncertain state of the project, which for now bears the name Who’s That Girl: “Should I make a series or a feature film?” The answers, as expected, were mixed. On the one hand, despite her mammoth cultural legacy, many support condensing her story into a two-hour film, in the style of Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, movies that grossed $911 million and $195 million at the box office, respectively. On the other hand, there are those who are in favor of a format that allows her to go into as much depth and expound as much as she wants, over several seasons, in a production backed by a streaming platform.

In the Instagram comments, others suggested a third, more common route: writing her memoirs. Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and, most recently, Cher, have all done so in recent years. But Madonna seems unwilling to follow in their footsteps or to turn to a ghost writer. It makes sense. As one of the pioneers of the art of the music video, which she transformed into a platform for self-expression and provocation rather than a mere promotional tool, she prefers to chronicle the achievements and vicissitudes of her career through images, not just words.

In fact, the matter goes back a long way, as the idea for this future film or series originated in an unauthorized biopic that Universal Pictures conceived in 2017 with the title Blond Ambition, a clear reference to her iconic 1990 tour. Produced by Michael De Luca, responsible for Fifty Shades of Grey and The Social Network, and with a script by Elyse Hollander, the plot was going to focus on her early years in New York, in the early 1980s. Specifically, how, after her time in the bands The Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records in 1982 and began to confront the machismo of the industry as fame loomed on the horizon.

On paper, the premise was promising. However, just two days after The Hollywood Reporter exclusively broke the news on April 24, 2017, the star was blunt in expressing her opinion in a later-deleted Instagram post: “Nobody knows what I know and what I have seen. Only I can tell my story. Anyone else who tries is a charlatan and a fool. Looking for instant gratification without doing the work. This is a disease in our society.” Since then, nothing has been heard of that project or any similar ones.

Everything changed on August 8, 2020. That day, on her favorite social network, the Queen of Pop shared a short video with Diablo Cody, winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2008 for Juno, suggesting that the two were up to something together. On September 10, the doubts were cleared up. In an hour-long Instagram live, they revealed that they had been working for weeks on a “visual autobiography” for Universal that would expand on the themes of the failed Blond Ambition. Of course, in the broadcast, they omitted a crucial detail: as Variety would confirm, Madonna not only planned to co-write it, but also to direct it.

“The reason I’m doing it is because a bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men. I read Universal was doing a script… they sent me the script because they wanted my blessing. And I read it, and it was the most hideous superficial crap I ever read. And then I found out that some — I found out — I’m not even going to say his name, but he’s a total misogynist, was directing. And I’m thinking, ‘Why would these people make a movie about my life? There’s nothing true in the script, the guy who is making it has no understanding of women, no appreciation of women, no respect for women,’” she said in 2021 on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show. “There is nobody on this planet who can write, direct and make a film about me better than I can.” The argument is solid, but her decision marks an unprecedented stance to date. Celebrities, until now, usually limit themselves to playing roles as creative consultants or executive producers on these types of productions; under no circumstances were they in charge of writing them, much less directing them.

The biopic subgenre has always been fertile ground for unusual experiments. Not long ago, Morgan Neville’s animated documentary Piece by Piece used Lego figures to illustrate the story of Pharrell Williams. And on January 1, Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) will be releasing Better Man, a film in which Robbie Williams is played by a CGI monkey. But Madonna is different. By firmly controlling her own narrative, without accepting external advice or guidance, she runs the risk of her film or series becoming a narcissistic and biased product, which could work against her.

Coming from her, no one expects her to replicate the arrogance and diva attitudes that were captured in the 1991 documentary In Bed with Madonna, where Alec Keshishian showed without filters what really happened behind the scenes on the Blond Ambition tour. Her brother, Christopher Ciccone, who died in October, said in the incendiary Living with My Sister Madonna, a book published in 2008 that led the siblings not to talk for years: “When she lets go of that control and lets other people take it, she gets better results, as happened with Evita. Her bad choices and her excessive control have caused her acting career to be what it is.” Not in vain, Madonna is the recipient of nine Golden Raspberry Awards, popularly known as the Razzies.

With the exception of Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), A League of Their Own (1992) and the aforementioned Alan Parker musical, which won her the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical in 1997, setbacks on the big screen have marked her career. And while Filth and Wisdom (2008) and W.E. (2011), her two forays into directorial work, were not severely criticized by critics, neither of them achieved the expected commercial success. “I don’t think people like that I’m successful in areas other than music,” she told NBC News’ Matt Lauer, referring to the failure of Swept Away (2002), a romantic comedy directed by her then-husband, Guy Ritchie, which was vilified by both the press and the public. Hollywood has never taken her seriously, either as an actress or as a director. That disdain, coupled with the personal and risky approach to the biopic, continues to hold back an initiative that, even with a major studio like Universal behind it, has not managed to secure the funding or support necessary to take off. At least, for the moment.

Although it remains undefined, the few details that have emerged from this lengthy pre-production phase have been enough to generate a handful of explosive headlines. In 2021, The Sun reported that Diablo Cody ended their collaboration due to disagreements with the artist, something that Entertainment Weekly denied: apparently, Cody delivered a first draft of the script and Erin Cressida Wilson, who adapted the novel The Girl on the Train, took the reins to polish it. But what really got people talking was the scoop that The Hollywood Reporter released on March 2, 2022 about auditions worthy of the best survival reality show. Described as “a military boot camp” with marathon days lasting up to 11 hours, the candidates for the role of Madonna had to dance, sing and, ultimately, “be able to do everything.”

Asked about it in May, singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan, better known as Snail Mail, corroborated the rumours in an interview with Vulture: “I don’t know shit, but it was the audition Olympics. I had to watch her tour doc, which was dope, and there were specific interviews that I had to emulate. I guess I was being considered for the “Like a Virgin” part of her career, so they gave me a music video from that time and asked me to make my own four-minute dance sequence. That was what really kicked my ass; I don’t dance. There were like 400 takes in my Dropbox.”

Ultimately, fan favourite Julia Garner beat out actresses such as Florence Pugh, Alexa Demie, Sydney Sweeney, Barbie Ferreira and Odessa Young, as well as singers Bebe Rexha and Sky Ferreira. There is also speculation that Julia Fox could join the cast. Unlike Garner, she did not have to undergo marathons of intense auditions, as she is slated to play Debi Mazar, one of the star’s best friends and confidants ever since they met in the elevator of the New York club Danceteria in the early 1980s.

To talk about Madonna is to talk about instinct, audacity, and transgression. From the controversial video for Like a Prayer to the provocative book Sex, over the course of four decades she has challenged conventions on countless occasions, dodged what others will say and followed her vision with unwavering determination. Awaiting a biopic that promises to be as polarizing as she is, the architect of modern pop is taking the plunge once again. After all, she has never needed anyone’s approval to shine: her true strength lies in challenging the rules that even the new generations of artists are afraid to question.

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