Madonna says she is making her own biopic so “misogynistic men” won’t.
“I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film,” the 63-year-old pop icon told Variety. “It was also a preemptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. So I put my foot in the door and said, ‘No one’s going to tell my story, but me.’”
Madonna announced in 2020 that she was directing her own biopic from a script she was co-writing. “There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me,” she explained in a statement at the time. “It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”
During a 2019 appearance on The Graham Norton Show in London, Madonna was asked who she thought would direct her life story. “I will make mine. I will. I can,” she replied. “I would like to warn any director that thinks they’re going to make a biopic of me that there will be more mysterious deaths.”
In the new Variety interview, Madonna gave an update on the project.
“I have a very long script that is really hard for me to make shorter,” she said. “I’ve been whittling away at it, but it’s like hacking off my limbs.”
Madonna made her directorial debut with the 2008 comedy Filth and Wisdom and, three years later, directed the historical drama W.E., which had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
An artist calling the shots on their own biopic is not completely unprecedented – comedian Richard Pryor directed and co-wrote 1986’s Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, in which he played a character based on himself.