Interview: Madonna

Thursday, 12 January 2012 18:03

Recreating the flavor—if not all the facts—of a distant, scandalous time, Madonna’s second venture into filmmaking as co-writer/director of W.E. mixes contemporary celebrity worship with time travel period nostalgia and glimpses into that elite world on both sides of the Atlantic, jazzed up and glossy.

Possibly drawing from her own paparazzi-dodging experiences through her marriage and divorce with U.K. big-screen bad boy Guy Ritchie, Madonna focuses in W.E. on two women divided by time and space but not by obsessions. Abbie Cornish plays a modern-day fangirl, while Andrea Riseborough plays Wallis Simpson, the effervescent American socialite whose romance with playboy monarch King Edward VIII (James D’Arcy) back in the 1930s sent the tabloids into assault mode for her audacity as a mere commoner.

So is Madonna a little cathartic—maybe even guy-bashing—with W.E.? According to this interview, the boy-toy dominatrix (both on- and off-stage) is a fierce nonbeliever in personal love. Madonna also lets loose about big bling, cross-continental grudges, emotional homework, historical hot sex, wrong lovers and broken hearts.

By Prairie Miller

That bracelet you’re wearing, is it from the movie?
This was a present from Cartier. After the film was over, I asked them to give me the bracelet that they made for Andrea. And they said no! And now everyone says yes to me! So they made me this instead.

What about this story got you hooked?
I first heard this story when I was in high school history class, learning about pre-war England. I started to really get to know the details of the story when I moved to England.

When I got married and moved to England, I felt like an outsider. I felt like “Okay, if I’m going to make myself feel comfortable in this place, I want to learn about English history.”

So I started reading books. I began with Henry VIII, and worked my way up to Edward VIII. I stopped there because he gave up the throne for the woman he loved. In between Henry and Edward, no one had done that.

I thought this was really intriguing and mystifying, and wanted to understand the nature of their relationship. Why would he do it? What did she have? What really took place? And what must it have felt like for her, and for him?

Is this something you could relate to because of your own situation?
I could because I know that Wallis Simpson moved to England to start her life all over when she married Ernest Simpson. And I know she felt like an outsider for quite a long time.

She was treated like an outsider, I think, for the rest of her life once she married Edward, and once he gave up the throne for her. She says it in the scene around the tree, “I will be the most hated woman in the world if you do this.”

And she was. She received thousands of hate letters every day of her life after that event. It must have been very painful. When someone gives up being king for you, then you have to make him feel like a king for the rest of your life. And that must be challenging, however much you must love somebody.

RELATED—Interview: Abbie Cornish

Being the outsider looking in, did what you went through fuel you in making the film?
I think when you’re an outsider, in a lot of ways, you can see things and be more objective about things than if you’re living in it and you’re around it all the time.

You know, it’s like when you go to Rome. Italians don’t get how beautiful all the architecture is around them because they wake up every day and see it. It’s kind of that same thing. I think I had the gift of objectivity in terms of being an outsider.

So why are there two gutsy women in your movie instead of one?
I wanted to be very clear that it is a point of view, and that truth is subjective. I never set out to make the quintessential biopic of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Looking back, is there anything you might have changed?
I think how things unfurled and evolved was how it was meant to be. I made all the choices I made because I needed to.

When you’re an artist and you’re doing something creative, at a certain point your practical brain shuts off. You’re submitting to something, and you’re channeling something. You can’t keep questioning the whys—why you want to do something. Obviously, I felt like there was something in the story that people could connect to.

Even though I’m describing a historical event, I believe the stories are accessible to all people.

What did you bring to W.E. from the men in your own life?
I think that really, there’s no such thing as perfect love. And we all come to that very painful discovery. At one point in our lives, we all have our hearts broken.

The last question that she asks in the film—“Do you believe we can change our destiny?” —that’s the important question. It’s something that’s important and relevant to me now.

Ten years ago or ten years from now—no matter where you are in your life—you can always change. You are never stuck in one place.

Is love something that drives your life?
Love does drive my life. I love my children, and they run my life. I love my work, and that runs my life too, to a certain extent. And I am driven by love. So, yes!

RELATED—Interview: Michelle Williams

Would you leave your own country for love, like Wallis?
No one has actually asked me to do that!

With your participation in the Superbowl and W.E.’s Golden Globes nominations, it’s been the month of Madonna.
Just the month? I want more than a month! But actually, it wasn’t choreographed that way. It just worked out that way. I did finish the film a while ago. It just happened that the movie is coming out when the record is coming out.

And then Superbowl came up. I was torn about doing Superbowl. Because, “Oh God, how can I do that and promote my film at the same time?” But, my manager talked me into it. I’m still punishing him for that!

Do you have something figured out already for the Superbowl?
Yes, I do. Shhh! I can’t tell you, or it won’t be a surprise!

Are you thinking about your next movie?
I’m thinking about it. That’s it! I’m a little busy right now, but I’m thinking about it!

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