When Madonna beat Meryl Streep to a role: “It was never a decision I had to make”
There haven’t been many occasions when Madonna and Meryl Streep have been in the running for the same role because, with the greatest of respect, one of them is a significantly better actor than the other.
In one corner, there’s the three-time Academy Award-winning and record-setting 21-time nominee widely celebrated as one of the all-time greats. Streep and prestige drama go hand in hand, with her trophy cabinet also containing two Baftas, three Primetime Emmys, and nine Golden Globes.
In the other stands the ‘Queen of Pop’, who did make a decent fist of the whole acting thing before eventually becoming more associated with cinematic chicken shit than chicken salad, a downward spiral that’s seen her become the recipient of 16 nominations from the Golden Raspberry Awards, which has yielded nine victories, including ‘Worst Actress of the Century’ for everything made between 1901 and 1999.
Under normal circumstances, the mere hint of Streep sniffing around a part that Madonna was interested in would lead to one winner. While that was technically true, it was the latter who won out in the end. During a development process that dragged on for well over a decade, Oliver Stone enlisted Streep to play the title role in the feature-length adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita.
Her involvement was first confirmed in 1989, with the planned start of production halted by political turmoil in Evita Peron’s native Argentina. Stone even took the film to a completely different studio when the initial schedule fell apart, and Streep remained first in line to embody the nation’s former first lady.
However, contractual negotiations between the star and Carolco Pictures were far from smooth, culminating in Streep – and eventually Stone – walking away from Evita altogether. By the end of the next year, Madonna had signed on to play the lead, but even at that, principal photography didn’t get underway until February 1996.
Between those two points, Glenn Gordon Caron was brought on to replace Stone in the director’s chair before he dropped out as well. Alan Parker proved that the third time marked the charm, and he brought Evita across the finish line with Madonna in tow. It was the high point of her onscreen career from a performative standpoint after she snagged the prize for ‘Best Actress – Comedy or Musical’ at the Golden Globes in what was the one and only high-profile acting nomination of her film career.
Parker was aware of the behind-the-scenes turmoil before he joined the production, explaining to Film Talk that he was glad he didn’t have to either cut Streep loose or choose between her and Madonna. “I think Meryl Streep is unbelievably brilliant; she can do anything,” he said. “But to be honest, she was never considered for the film, so it was never a decision I had to make.”
She might have been Stone’s front-runner, but once Parker took the reins on Evita and Madonna pled her case, he didn’t even contemplate returning to the well and gauging whether or not she’d still be interested.
