by Paul Fischer
Madonna
Madonna was in the Apple promoting The Next Best Thing, her latest flick, co-starring Rupert Everett as the gay best friend who fathers her character's baby, and Benjamin Bratt as the straight guy she falls in love with.
The story, briefly: She's an LA yoga instructor and her best friend (Rupert) a gay landscape architect (ie. gardener) make a baby, after a couple of bottles, an intimate discussion and the sound in her ears of a ticking clock. Six years later they live and raise the kidlet together, while keeping separate social lives. One day, a legal eagle (Bratt) walks into the yoga school. Love blooms. Madonna wants to marry and move to New York. Rupert wants to stay in LA. Things get difficult.
Summing up the (almost) twenty minutes we had with Madonna can be done in the same style she answered the questions. Direct. To the point. No long stories. No ducking (and no griping from her personal PR folk about any) questions. Not a lot about her next album, either, other than her description that it would be a "stripped down minimalist funk techno (I don't know what to call it)" thing. The description of the first part of the movie story, a twist on the usual menage a trois, made us shudder ('cuz it sounded like a big screen Will and Grace, a teevee sitcom we dislike intensely -- we consider it a one joke pony). Knowing that Madonna ain't no blonde airhead, that sense of trepidation was a good place to start our StarTalk . . .
Madonna: My
first impression, the first time I saw the script, was that it was too
much like a sitcom. I liked the idea of the friendship between Rupert's
character and my character, but that's it. I thought it needed a serious
rewrite and that's when Rupert and Mel Bordeaux (sic) came in and did
the rewrite. Then it was written for me and Rupert to do. The more they
worked on it; we did pow-wow sessions where I'd say "a parent would
never do that," and obviously I liked it better and better as time
went on.
CrankyCritic: Rupert
doesn't take a writing credit on this. [original writer Tom Ropelewski
gets the nod]
Madonna: If he doesn't I don't know why because he had a lot
to do with the writing of it. There must be some reason, but I don't know.
We know the real story.
CrankyCritic: What
changes were made?
Madonna: The locale. One of the reasons I insisted the site
be changed to LA is that I wanted more time with my daughter. I make a
lot of my decisions based on that now.
CrankyCritic: What
else?
Madonna: Changing what my character did for a living. Originally
a swimming instructor and I just couldn't stand being in a chlorinated
pool for eight hours a day, so I begged them to give me another instructing
job. [laughs] I think we just gave our characters more depth. More humanity.
I think we made our relationship -- in the original script it was more
mercenary. I think it was like a test tube situation -- and we wanted
it to be more like we really did care for each other. There really was
an affection for each other, so it wasn't some scientific biologic scenario.
CrankyCritic: Your
character is a yoga instructor. Do you do Yoga in real life? Madonna: Yes.
It brings me . . . a sense of balance. Focus. Discipline. Serenity. It
kind of works with all different aspects. Physically, obviously, mentally,
emotionally blah blah blah. It sounds so boring but I can't tell you what
a great influence it's had on me and my life. All of my friends have started
doing it.
CrankyCritic: So you'd recommend it?
Madonna: I recommend to everyone at this table [laughter
all around]
CrankyCritic: The
"Madonna persona" that we all know is so strong. Do you have
any concerns when you look at a role like this, where the character is
pining for a guy or ditched? Nobody thinks of you that way.
Madonna: Well they should because that's certainly happened
to me! [and the entire room shifts uncomfortably. Madonna lets out half
a gulped laugh] I've had my heart broken.
CrankyCritic: Considering
the success of your music career, is there more pressure on you when you do film.
Madonna: Say that again?
CrankyCritic: Are
people paying more attention, perhaps wanting to watch you fail in film,
because you've been so successful in music
Madonna: I wouldn't say it's a question of people paying more
attention but I do think they're much more judgmental. That goes for anybody
who's been really successful in one area and then they want to go off
into another area and be taken seriously. I mean, how on top of Michael
Jordan was everybody when he decided he wanted to play baseball? It's
kind of that same thing.
CrankyCritic: Unfairly
judgmental?
Madonna: Absolutely.
CrankyCritic: Did
the
success of
Evita make you feel confident in your acting ability?
Madonna: No. I needed some good acting roles and some time
with a good acting teacher. I don't think it was necessarily Evita. It
could've been something else.
CrankyCritic: What
do you look for in a script? What appeals to you?
Madonna: Good writing and good characters and a story that
interests me, that I think is original. That has heart. There's not anything
in particular. In my opinion a good movie starts with good writing. That
is the beginning and the most important element of it all. I wouldn't
want to be in a movie that promoted violence. I wouldn't' want to be in
a movie that was shocking just for the sake of being shocking. It is important
to me what statement the movie makes. I don't want to just be in a movie
because I'll get paid a lot of money or it'll be a big huge hit.
CrankyCritic: So
it's never crossed your mind to do a big action role or horror film just
for the hell of it? Just for fun? [question by Razorburnd. Thanx!]
Madonna: [makes a face showing utter repulsion of the idea.
. . but no photos were allowed, sorry] No. I don't think I've ever done
anything just for the hell of it.
CrankyCritic: All
through your career, you've kept reinventing your image. Surprising people. Is
it harder to continue to surprise people?
Madonna: It's
not that my career has been based on surprising people. My creative interests
have been to challenge myself and to constantly do new things that were going
to broaden my own mind and, in the process hopefully, other people. First, it
has to interest me. It has to interest me in a OK this is going to take me to
another place. I'm going to learn something from this. It's going to inspire me.
That's where I always start, whether it's music or film or whatever. Hopefully
the manifestation of that is work that has the same effect on the audience.
CrankyCritic: Don
MacLean's "American Pie" plays a big part in this film, and
you've recorded it for the soundtrack. Are you concerned with the reaction
to covering a classic song?
Madonna: No. Actually, I think it's quite subversive to do
such a classic song. And it wasn't my idea. It was Rupert's idea. It was
his idea that the character that dies in the beginning of the movie; that
was his favorite song and that's what he really wanted played at his funeral.
That all of his friends would gather and sing his favorite song. In the
movie, we sing it as a form of protest against everyone else at the funeral,
pretending that he didn't die of AIDS. Then it becomes this kind of, you
know, "standing up for your rights" theme song through the film.
It was Rupert's idea that I do a cover of it. At first, I thought he was
kind of crazy and I kept saying "no way." I don't like to do
covers anyway. The more I thought about it and the more I listened to
it; a lot of the lyrics sounded apocalyptic to me and applicable to now.
Sort of like saying good-bye to a lot of things we know in popular culture.
There's something really melancholic about it and I felt like it made
sense for now. I have to give Rupert credit for it, he really pushed me.
CrankyCritic: Do
you know what song you'd want played at your funeral?
Madonna: Not "My Way". [everybody laughs] I hear
that's the number one requested song at funerals. It's a very good song,
though. I don't know. I'd have to think about that one.
Images from The Next Best Thing and © 2000 Lakeshore Entertainment and Paramount Pictures. Inc. All rights reserved. Album covers courtesy and © Sire Records. Not to be used or copied for any commercial purpose.
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