Madonna Talks W.E.

Madonna Talks Her Directorial Effort ‘W.E.’
By Max Evry

February 2, 2012

Madonna is an icon of the highest caliber, both as a pop star and an actress. Now she’s branching out with “W.E.”, her second feature directorial effort after her 2008 debut “Filth and Wisdom”.

“W.E.” follows a modern day, unhappily married woman named Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) who is obsessed with Wallis Simpson, the spirited American woman whose sweeping romance with Edward VIII caused him to abdicate the throne as King of England shortly after ascending in 1936.

The film cuts back and forth between the two Wallys, drawing parallels to their situations within the theme of changing one’s destiny. Madonna sat down with us in New York to discuss what drew her to the subject of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and how her own experiences living in England helped shape the story.

Can you tell us when you first heard this story and what about it hooked you in that you related to?

MADONNA: I first heard this story when I was in high school history class, but I really started to get to know the details when I got married and moved to England. I felt sort of lost, like an outsider, and felt if I was going to make myself feel comfortable in this place I would learn English history. I started reading books, beginning with Henry VIII and I 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. This was really intriguing and mystifying. I wanted to understand the nature of their relationship, why he would do it, what did she have. What really took place, what it felt like for him, for her.

Could you connect to the story from a personal point of view?

MADONNA: I could to a certain extent because I know that Wallis Simpson moved to England at a certain point to start her life over. 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. Once she married Edward and he gave up the throne for her, she said, “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. She saw the writing on the wall and it 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 his life. That must be hard and challenging, however much you must love somebody. I don’t think she had an easy life but I do believe they truly loved one another. It’s a paradoxical story.

What made you want to go into the present and the past as opposed to a straight biography of her?

MADONNA: Because I wanted to be very clear that it was a point of view and the truth is subjective. I never set out to make the quintessential biopic of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

There are two very distinct perceptions going on, the British and the American. How did you experience inform the way you would show both of those? Obviously you’re an American but you have the experience of living in Britain.

MADONNA: I think when you’re an outsider you can see things and be more objective about them in a lot of ways than when you’re living in them. It’s like when you go to Rome Italians don’t get how beautiful all the architecture around them is because they wake up every day and see it. It’s kind of that same thing. I had the gift of objectivity in terms of being an outsider. There’s the inevitable English vs. American point of view, but I did live in England for ten years before I wrote the script and did do the research. I was married to a Brit. I feel like I did my homework and was speaking from a place of being informed.

It’s a long, involved process for you, no doubt, but is there anything about the film or the process you would like to change?

MADONNA: I think how things happened and how they 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 doing something creative at a certain point your practical brain shuts off and you are submitting to something, channeling something. You can’t keep questioning the “whys” of why you want to do something. I felt there was something in this story people could relate to even though I’m describing an historical event. Still, I believe the stories are accessible to all people. What’s the story about? There’s no such thing as perfect love. We all come to that very painful discovery at one point in our lives or another. We all have our hearts broken, we all choose the wrong people for ourselves, we all think one person is going to make our lives complete. If we’re adults, and do enough self-examination, we realize that happiness lies in our own hand. It isn’t until we make ourselves happy that we’re actually whole enough to be with someone in a healthy relationship. That’s an important message that Wally discovers, and the last question she asks in the film, “Do you believe we can change our destiny?” That’s an important question to me now, ten years ago, ten years from now, that no matter where you are in your life you can always change. You’re never stuck in one place.

Is there something that drives your life? Is there something you’d give up everything for the sake of love?

MADONNA: Well love does drive my life. I love my children and they run my life. I love my work and that runs my life to a certain extent. I am driven by love so… yes.

This is coming out in the beginning of February, you’ve got the Super Bowl coming up. You’re a marketing genius, what else are you planning? It feels like the month of Madonna coming up.

MADONNA: Just a month? (laughs) I want more than a month. Actually it wasn’t choreographed that way, it just worked out. I finished the film a while ago, it just happened that the movie is coming out when my record is coming out and then Super Bowl came up. I was really torn about the Super Bowl because I didn’t know how I could do that and promote my film at the same time, but my manager talked me into it. I’m still punishing him for it.

“W.E.” hits theaters Friday, February 3.