VULTURE: What It’s Like to Work With Madonna on a Movie Set

[deathproof 10,854]

FASCINATING READ!

https://www.vulture.com/article/what-its-like-to-work-with-madonna-on-a-movie-set.html
 

highlights:

 

 

Madonna and Trump

Foley was planning to shoot a scene in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, and Donald Trump apparently stipulated that he wanted a paparazzo shot with her in hopes of making the New York Post. Madonna initially refused, launching years of scorn directed at the real-estate cheat. (“He’s a wimp,” she told Interview in 1990 when asked about his budding presidential prospects.) But Foley insisted, knowing that Warner Bros. had already negotiated access to the building. “It was one of those moments where I had to say, ‘You gotta do this,’” he says. “I don’t think she made eye contact with him.”

 

Madonna considered for Ruthless People

“At that dinner, we were all mesmerized by her,” Jerry says. It would have been an opportunity for Madonna to go over-the-top, to kick and scream and scheme. But something didn’t click. The audience needed to believe her husband hated her, and Madonna showed too much charm to drive a man away. Plus, at 27, she still seemed a bit young to play a housewife. Eventually, everyone agreed it wasn’t the right fit.

 

Madonna and Spike Lee

After the back-to-back bombs Body of Evidence and Dangerous Game, casting Madonna wasn’t exactly in vogue. “I didn’t give a fuck,” Lee says. “She’s who I had in mind, and she wanted to do it, so that was it. She’s a pro.” Ever since, they’ve had a symbiotic back-and-forth. Madonna’s team gave Lee a discount on a couple of Ray of Light tracks he wanted to use in his Netflix adaptation of She’s Gotta Have It, and he gave her feedback on the script for the since-canned biopicthat she was going to direct about herself. Lee says she also gave him a friendly talking-to when his son, Jackson, was apparently pursuing Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes. “She said, ‘Spike, your son is bothering my daughter,’” Lee laughs

 

Chicago

Weinstein also floated the idea of casting Janet Jackson, Poster says, but it never went anywhere. Imagine Chicago starring Janet and Madonna!

 

Image change for Evita

“We had this really candid conversation with Liz Rosenberg,” says a former Disney marketing executive, referring to Madonna’s former longtime publicist, “and said, ‘She’s going to have to transform over the next year.’ If you go back and look at what she wore to public events, she was sort of buttoned-up. Liz saw the wisdom in an image shift.”

According to Peter Adee, another Disney marketing veteran, Madonna was one step ahead of Rosenberg. She understood that softening the reputation that Sexand the R-rated album Erotica had given her a few years earlier was essential to winning over highbrow Hollywood types, especially because gossip hounds were calling her first pregnancy a PR stunt. (“Some people have suggested that I have done this for shock value,” she said. “These are comments only a man would make. It’s much too difficult to be pregnant and bring a child into this world to do it for whimsical or provocative reasons.”) Disney sold Evita as an elegant love story above all else, and Madonna partnered with fashion brands like Bloomingdale’s, Dior, Ferragamo, and Estée Lauder for in-store displays and cosmetic lines that gave the campaign an upscale sheen. She weighed in on every detail. Forever indebted to the Old Hollywood luminaries she idolized, Madonna remade herself the way Elizabeth Taylor would have. “There are times in advertising where you wink, wink, nod, nod — you make fun of it,” Addee says, referring to Madonna’s spotty acting résumé. “We never did. We sold it as Evita starring Madonna, basically saying, ‘This is something new.’”

[survivalartist 6,688]

UGH could you imagine if she was in Ruthless People as Danny DeVito's wife lol

[Blue Jean 16,127]

Where is this paparazzi shot with Donald Trump ?

[Velvet Rope 6,017]

Honestly it would have been fierce had Janet & Madonna been cast together in Chicago. Two of the biggest pop superstars and queens of pop on the same screen together would have been a cultural reset.

[Blue Jean 16,127]

1 minute ago, Velvet Rope said:

Honestly it would have been fierce had Janet & Madonna been cast together in Chicago. Two of the biggest pop superstars and queens of pop on the same screen together would have been a cultural reset.

I would have loved that. But I think both would have been a gamble compared to the casting they eventually went with.

[Garry Howieson 164]

This is actually super interesting & he is actually quite complimentary about her.

 

[me1981 1,368]

On 7/6/2024 at 2:36 AM, survivalartist said:

UGH could you imagine if she was in Ruthless People as Danny DeVito's wife lol

That's why I'm surprised no one said 'Hey why don't we expand the kidnappers parts' Madonna and Sean Penn instead of Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold. Better than Shanghai Surprise. 

[Pretender1978 1,003]

18 hours ago, Garry Howieson said:

This is actually super interesting & he is actually quite complimentary about her.

 

Apart from the first minute what is complimentary? They sound really demeaning especially the camera guy