Madonna

"W.E. Still Love Her"

If there is anything that has been said about Madonna that has not already been said, she is undoubtedly one of the most important international pop culture figures of our era. She has spent her long career breaking nearly every single taboo imaginable, from dance music turning from a guilty pleasure to something we almost unashamedly defend, to women being able to be in complete control of their own sexuality, ambitions, and drive, to sexuality of all forms not being something we have to hide behind closed doors, but something we cherish and celebrate and find essential on the path to true love and enlightenment.

She has achieved these numerous feats in no easy task by dominating 1980’s and 1990’s pop music and becoming the biggest-selling female performer of all time and taking on the risk of going from singer to actress, which met its share of surprising triumphs like Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, A League Of Their Own, and Evita and calamitous flops like Shanghai Surprise, Body Of Evidence, and Swept Away. Now, Madonna’s forte for creative risk-taking and reinvention has driven her to the realm of filmmaking, which she made her debut in 2008 with Filth And Wisdom. Now the 53 year-old Queen Of Pop hopes to further show what she can do with her latest film, the period romantic drama W.E..

Madonna told about how she first got hooked onto the story, which stars Abbie Cornish as Wally Winthrop, a New Yorker who learns the history of how English King Edward VIII, played by James D’Arcy, gave up the throne to be with American woman Wallis Simpson, played by Andrea Riseborough.

“I first heard this story when I was in high school history class, learning about pre-war England,” she remembers, “But 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 a little bit lost and

Madonna

"W.E. Still Love Her"

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,” Madonna continues, “I began with Henry VIII, and I worked my way up to Edward VIII. And 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 interesting and intriguing and mystifying, and I want to understand the nature of their relationship. Why would he do it? What did she have? What really took place? What must it have felt like for her, for him?”

It was asked if Madonna related to the story because it mirrored her own.

“I could to a certain extent,” she replies, “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 and was treated like an outsider, I think, for the rest of her life, really. Because once she married Edward, and once he gave up the throne for her, she did say it, 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,” Madonna continues, “She saw the writing on the wall and must have been very painful for her. 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 hard and challenging, however much you must love somebody. So I don’t think she had an easy life, but I believe they truly loved each other, so it’s a paradoxical story.”

The singer and now also filmmaker was asked why there are two

Madonna

"W.E. Still Love Her"

women, Wally in 1998 and Wallis in 1936, in the plot of W.E. and not just one.

“Because I wanted to be very clear that it is a point of view, and that truth is subjective,” Madonna replies, “I never set out to make the quintessential biopic of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Madonna talks about how being an outsider in Britain helped to fuel how she shaped the making of 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,” she says, “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,” Madonna adds, “And I think there’s the inevitable English point-of-view versus the British point-of-view, but I did live in England for ten years before I wrote the script and did wrote the script. And I was married to a Brit and I feel like I did my research, my homework, and was speaking from being a place of being involved.”

Madonna was asked if there was anything about W.E., now that the final cut is complete, she would change.

“I think how things happened and how they unfurled and evolved was how it was meant to be,” she answers, “I made all the choices I made because I needed to. I obviously needed to tell that story. When you’re an artist and you’re doing something creative, at a certain point, your practical brain shuts off and you’re submitting to something, and you’re channeling something. You can’t keep questioning the whys of why you want to do something. Obviously, I felt like there was something in the story that people could relate to and connect

Madonna

"W.E. Still Love Her"

to, even though I’m telling a historical one, even though I’m describing a historical event, I believe the stories are accessible to all people. I think that what the story is about is, 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 or another, we all have our hearts broken,” Madonna continues, “We all choose the wrong people for ourselves. We all think that one person is going to make our lives complete and if we are adults and do enough self-examination, we realized that really happiness lies in our own hand. And it isn’t until we make ourselves happy that we’re actually whole enough to be with someone and be in a relationship. So I think an important message and an important thing that Wally discovers. And also, the last question that she asks in the film, ‘Do you believe we can change our destiny?’ I think that’s really an important question, and it’s something that’s important and relevant to me now, ten years ago or ten years from now, that no matter where you are in your life, you can always change. You are never stuck in one place.”

Madonna was also asked if love was something that drives her life.

“Well, love does drive my life,” she replies, “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.”
It was also asked if Madonna would ever leave her own country for love like Wallis does.

“Well, no one has actually asked me to do that,” Madonna answers.

It was mentioned to Madonna that February is set to be the month of Madonna with W.E.’s nationwide U.S. release, which netted a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design, her upcoming twelfth album

Madonna

"W.E. Still Love Her"

M.D.N.A., and her performance in the halftime show of the NFL’s Super Bowl XLVI.

“Just the month?” she replies, “I want more than a month. But, well, actually, it wasn’t choreographed that way. It just worked out that way because I did finish the film a while ago. It just happened that the movie is sort of coming out when the record is coming out and then Super Bowl came up.”

“I was really torn about doing Super Bowl,” Madonna adds, “Because, I thought, oh God, how can I do that and promote my film at the same time? It’s a little bit much. But, my manager talked me into it and I’m still punishing him for that!

It was asked of Madonna if she knows what she has in store for her Super Bowl halftime show performance.

“Yes, I do,” she teases, “Shhh! I can’t tell you, because then it won’t be a surprise!”

Finally, Madonna had this to say about whether she plans to make another film as a director.

“I’m thinking about it,” Madonna answers, “That’s it. I’m a little busy right now, but I’m thinking about it.”