THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701090028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 236 lines
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone didn't make a grand entrance.
She entered the room as quietly as one could when accompanied by a heavyweight bodyguard and a discreet entourage of aiders and fetchers.
Clad in a V-neck print dress that looked markedly old-fashioned, her shoulder-length blond hair was carefully coiffured. Only her ruby-red, exaggerated, lips gave a hint that she was once the material girl.
This small, pale little blonde girl seems hardly qualified to be one of the more controversial women of this waning century.
And yet, she is, after all, Madonna, the pop diva who has sold 100 million albums and whose list of single hits beat the Beatles' old record for back-to-back chart toppers. This is the same woman who pioneered the cone bra look, complete with exposed navel. This is the same woman who was banned by the Vatican (because of her ``Like a Prayer'' video). This is the same woman whose ``Justify My Love'' video, with its sadomasochistic images, was even banned from MTV. This is the same woman who turned out the photo-book ``Sex'' in 1992 and publicly suggested she was bisexual.
This is not, though, the same woman I interviewed in 1991 when she was talking about her infamous documentary ``Truth or Dare.''
Back then, she lounged on a couch and had the distracting habit of chewing gum and eating popcorn at the same time. Even then, though, she talked about how she wanted to play Eva Peron in the movies but that she refused to do it until ``they'' (presumably the Disney studio) came up with a budget big enough to justify it. ``I won't do it as a cheapjack thing,'' she vowed.
Today, sitting in a hotel overlooking the yachts of Marina Del Ray in California, the air is markedly different. Already nominated for a Golden Globe Award, she is an Oscar hopeful as a ``serious'' actress, not just an exhibitionist. And yes, Disney did come up with a $60-million budget that provided 4,000 cheering extras while she belted ``Don't Cry for Me Argentina'' from a balcony.
She's Sarah Bernhardt now, and she's eager to let you know it. Or, rather, she's something like Sarah Bernhardt, serious actress, playing Eva Peron, powerful woman.
``My entire life, and career, has been leading up to this,'' she said, with no hint of insincerity. ``I felt I was meant to play Eva Peron. I felt it was destiny. I was in, and out, three times while other actresses were almost set for it. But I felt Michelle Pfeiffer wasn't the right one to play this part. I feel we are destined to get what we get, and this one was mine.
``I had to give up everything for two years to do this part, but it was worth it. Record contracts, other commitments, everything, had to be turned down. I have no regrets about making the decision. It was worth it.''
Is there a similarity between standing on a balcony in Eva Peron's costume and singing ``Don't Cry for Me Argentina'' before 4,000 extras and singing up-beat pop tunes in an arena of 20,000 spectators?
``It has its similarities,'' she said, ``but making a movie is very isolating - very lonely - and I wasn't playing myself here. The amazing thing was that a lot of people beneath the balcony were crying. To them, I had become Eva Peron and they wept openly. It was as if they were seeing her again. Yes, there are many similarities between us.
``She was misunderstood and misquoted by the media. So have I been. She was portrayed in a demonic way. So have I been. She grew up without a father. I grew up without a mother. She left her little village at age 15 to go to Buenos Aires. I left my home, in the suburbs of Detroit, at 19 to go to New York. We were both determined to make something of our lives. Yes, there is a similarity.''
When she arrived in Argentina to film the long-delayed movie version of the Broadway pop opera ``Evita,'' she was greeted by signs that read ``Fuera (go home) Madonna'' or, worse, ``Get Out, Hollywood Whore.'' Protests continued during the early weeks of filming but, slowly, the Argentinian people began to accept her in the role of the country's former first lady, a woman who is regarded as a saint by some, and as an embezzler and social-climber by others.
``Everyone seemed to either hate her or love her,'' Madonna remembered. ``The more research I did on her, the closer I felt to her. The security problems were tremendous. I was afraid to go from the door to my car. I couldn't sleep at night because there were people screaming on the streets in front of the hotel. But at first, they yelled `Madonna' and eventually they yelled `Evita.' That was the ultimate compliment.
``I felt I had reached a plateau one day when an old man who was playing a street sweeper in a crowd scene waltzed with me in the street. He said, `You are Evita. I knew Evita. She was a good woman.' That meant something to me.''
A woman approached and said simply, ``Lourdes needs you.''
Madonna abruptly rose and left the room.
Before I could protest that I had had only five minutes for the interview, the woman said ``You wouldn't want the baby to starve, would you?''
Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, some 8 weeks old and perhaps the world's most famous baby, was in the next room. She is named for the French town of Lourdes where, in the movies at least, Jennifer Jones saw a miracle in ``The Song of Bernadette.''
Some 20 minutes later, though, Madonna did return. ``Sorry, the milk truck has returned,'' she announced, cracking a smile for the first time.
``She sleeps for five hours at a time, but then, she's demanding. I feed her a bottle sometimes, but I don't like to too much. I wanna do it myself. She won't be raised by a nanny.''
Becoming a mother, at 38, Madonna says, is the coolest thing ever to happen to her.
``It was a year in which waiting came to an end,'' she said as she settled. ``I had wanted to be a mother for a long time. I also had wanted to play Evita for a long time. Both happened in the past year.''
So how has motherhood changed her life?
``It simply means that I'll never make another selfish decision in my life,'' she said.
She has no plans, though, to marry Lourdes' father, Carlos Leon, whom she reportedly met while jogging in Central Park in New York City and who is her physical trainer.
``No paper could make me stay with someone I didn't want to stay with and that same piece of paper shouldn't be the reason for me staying,'' she said. ``Things are very happy at the moment. We just have to see how it works out.'' Madonna resents that she can't walk her baby in the park. ``I wouldn't wish fame on a dog, but, then, I wouldn't give it up entirely either.''
As for ``Evita,'' which opens locally Friday, its path to her door has not been a direct one.
It was Tim Rice who first thought of telling Eva Peron's life story in modern operatic format. He wrote the lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for the ``Evita'' concept album which was released in November of 1976. The album immediately became a No. 1 hit in England while the single, ``Don't Cry for Me Argentina,'' sung by Julie Covington, topped the singles chart. A stage version, starring Elaine Paige, opened in London in 1978 and on Broadway, with Patti LuPone in 1979 (winning seven Tony Awards).
Alan Parker was originally asked to direct a movie version, but bowed out because he had just finished ``Fame'' and didn't want to do another musical right away. Subsequent suggested directors have included Ken Russell, Herbert Ross, Francis Ford Coppola, Franco Zeffirelli, Michael Cimino, Richard Atttenborough and Oliver Stone.
Stone planned to do it with Meryl Streep in the title role but ``creative differences'' arose. Parker, more than a decade later, agreed to return to the project. His choice for the lead was Michelle Pfeiffer but she wanted to film it in Los Angeles, where she could be near her two children. He felt it needed to be shot on location in Argentina.
Barbra Streisand's eagerness to do the part was even satirized in the New York show ``Forbidden Broadway'' with an actress singing ``Don't Cry for Me, Barbra Streisand.'' But she was not the only one who coveted ``Evita.'' In the running at varied times have been Elaine Paige, Patti Lupone, Charo, Raquel Welch, Ann-Margret, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Diane Keaton, Olivia Newton-John, Pia Zadora, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey.
Not taking a chance on losing the part again, Madonna wrote a carefully constructed four-page, handwritten, letter to Alan Parker stating that she was the one who should play the part, that she would give it her all, and that she would forgo all other business activities for two years in order to get the movie made.
Parker admits that it won him over. ``She assured me that this wasn't going to be a frivolous activity,'' he said. ``Filmmakers give up two years of their lives routinely to make a movie but, for her, in the music business, it was a big commitment.''
He now says he doesn't think anyone could have done the role better. ``Madonna is a phenomenon - pretty smart and incredibly strong-willed,'' he said. ``She has an amazing bull(bleep) detector and she doesn't take any mess from anyone. She has to have something special to keep it going this long. Her main weapon is herself. She's fierce, intuitive and intelligent and she was determined to get this picture made.''
Often pictured as a cold, calculating and overly ambitious person, Madonna's critics have claimed that her voice sounds like ``Minnie Mouse on helium'' or that she is ``naked ambition, backed by no talent.''
In an uncharacteristic moment of self-doubt, Madonna admits that ``I had to start all over with this score. Webber and Rice do not write music that is easy to sing. The keys change all over the place. The rhythms are erratic. I went to New York and went through vocal training for three months to learn, all over again, how to breath, how to project. The phrasing and the lyrics are killers. The first time I went through the score, I said, `I can't do it.' But, eventually, I did. I discovered an upper register I never knew I had. I'd never been forced to try it before.''
The soundtrack of the film was recorded in London prior to filming, with Antonio Banderas as the narrator, Che, and Jonathan Pryce (Broadway's ``Miss Saigon'' and the movies' ``Carrington'') as dictator Juan Peron. Parker said that ``at least 90 percent of the film is prerecorded which made it very scary because we had to make choices in the recording studio that we had to later live with during filming. But there are several scenes of intimacy, including her death scene, that Madonna insisted on doing live.''
Comparisons between the powerful pop diva and the powerful political power are obvious. Madonna, the eldest daughter in a family of six, took care of her younger siblings after her mother died.
``I knew how to change diapers when Lourdes was born,'' she said. ``It's not something you forget.''
She left Detroit at age 19 and went to New York. Legend has it that she had $37 when she asked the cab driver to put her off ``in the middle of everything'' and he dispatched her at Times Square. She first performed, at age 24, at New York's Danceteria with her debut single ``Everybody.''
Eva Duarte was born in a tiny Pampas town west of Buenos Aires, an illegitimate child who was not allowed to attend her father's funeral. She never forgot and hated the middle-class ever since. She aligned herself with a popular tango singer to get to Buenos Aires where she became a radio performer and met military and political aspirant Juan Peron.
As first lady of Argentina she made international headlines during her so-called ``Rainbow Tour'' to European capitals. At age 33, Eva Peron died of cancer in 1952 after gaining the admiration of the poor people to whom she fed funds. More than 1,000 schools bearing her name were built in Argentina. The entire country went into mourning after her death but she was buried, for political reasons, in Europe. Not until 20 years later was her body returned to Argentina.
Madonna issued a statement to USA Today saying `` `Evita' is the first movie big enough to contain me. I know I have a very big presence. If I overpower the movie, the movie fails.'' Obviously ``Shanghai Surprise,'' ``Who's That Girl?'' and the heavily sexual thriller ``Body of Evidence'' were too little for her. They all were dismal flops.
But will the Academy take seriously a personage who turned out ``Sex'' the picture book peep show not long ago, in 1992? Does the queen of cone bras have a chance of joining the prestigious list of Academy Award winning actresses.
Madonna bristles at the hint that she might have a bit much to live down. ``I'm like Edith Piaf,'' she said. ```No, Je Ne Regrette Rien.'' That's the song Edith sang. It means `No Regrets.' That's me. I have no regrets. `Truth or Dare' was a truthful documentary of a pop star on tour. I'm not the only one insane, but it was attacked because it was honest. It frightened a lot of people.''
She added that ``I probably wouldn't have turned out this way if I didn't have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against. I'll always be Catholic, whether I like it or not, and I've had Lourdes baptized. But she'll be taught about all religions.''
As for her infamous book ``Sex,'' she is dismayed that it eclipsed her album ``Erotica'' which she feels was ignored because of the book's notoriety.
``But I'm not ashamed of the book. It pushed the right envelopes and challenged the right taboos. People are scared when a woman begins to have power. Men have had sex magazines for years. Playboy is fine, because it is a fantasy created by a man, for men. Everyone got nervous when a woman was talking about sex, and was in charge. Yes, women have sexual fantasies too and it's OK for me, or anyone else, to talk about them.''
Serious actress or not, she isn't promising not to break further taboos.
``I might calm down, but, then, I might not,'' she said as she left. ``We just have to see what life brings. Motherhood will make me more responsible, and less selfish, but that doesn't mean - well, it doesn't mean that I'm bowing out of life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Hollywood Pictures
"I had to give up everything for two years to do this part," says
Madonna of her standing role as "Evita," but "I have no regrets
about the decision." The movie opens Friday in area theaters.
Color photo
Antonio Banderas portrays the revolutionary Leader Che.
CINERGI PICTURES
Jonathan Pryce stars as Argentine dictator Juan Peron and Madonna
stars as his wife, Eva, in ``Evita.''
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE BIOGRAPHY EVITA