“Dirty rotten scum”: the 1996 Madonna movie that was protested against
Madonna might have become pop’s reigning queen back in the 1980s, but her hopes of expanding her career into the world of Hollywood stardom didn’t exactly hit the same mark.
For someone as musically gifted as Madonna – and with such a knack for performance – you’d think that she would adapt to the big screen naturally, but the singer has made some notoriously bad movies, resulting in her becoming the female star with the most Razzie wins to her name.
Yet, one of her first acting performances was actually impressive, with the musician bringing genuine skill to her performance as the titular character in Desperately Seeking Susan. The indie movie, directed by Susan Seidelman, was a great success, and it seemed to tease a promising start for Madonna’s acting career. But sadly, things soon took a turn when she appeared in Shanghai Surprise the following year, which was produced by George Harrison’s production company.
You’d think that a project that involved the former Beatle would be fun, especially since Madonna would be starring alongside her new husband, Sean Penn, but the whole movie was a disaster. Harrison couldn’t stand working with the singer, once revealing in an interview, “You want the truth? It was a pain in the ass. Because we were doing a comedy movie, she hasn’t got a sense of humour.”
After the failure of Shanghai Surprise, both critically and commercially, Madonna tried acting again, this time with a leading role in the comedy Who’s That Girl. It was a disaster. Bombing at the box office and failing to woo the critics, the movie seemed to suggest that Madonna just wasn’t cut out for the silver screen. Of course, that still wasn’t going to stop her. Madonna eventually found renewed acclaim as an actor in the likes of Dick Tracy and A League of Their Own, bringing the charm she had once shown in Desperately Seeking Susan. But then Body of Evidence happened, an erotic movie that most critics deemed to be nothing more than a vanity project.
Every time Madonna presented audiences with great acting potential, it was almost like she was delivering a ‘gotcha!’ moment. It would only be a matter of time before she’d return to the screen with something Razzie-worthy. So, when she was cast in the leading role of an adaptation of the hit musical Evita, there was naturally quite a lot of opposition against her.
You see, it wasn’t just any musical role – it was a portrayal of the Argentinian icon Eva Perón, an activist and politician who made a huge dent in the country’s cultural landscape. Madonna couldn’t mess this up. When she flew to Buenos Aires to begin filming, however, she found herself met with significant resistance from locals, which she documented in a diary published by Vanity Fair.
While she did find herself in the presence of enough fans to flatter her, Madonna noted the presence of some rather discouraging graffiti. “On the drive from the airport, I twice saw graffiti painted on the walls that said, EVITA LIVES, GET OUT, MADONNA,” she wrote. “How’s that for a welcome? I have also read in the local newspapers that Alan Parker, Antonio Banderas, who plays Che, and myself have been declared personnae non gratae, which is a nice way of saying we are dirty rotten scum.”
The singer didn’t let this get to her, though, adding, “Of course, this is all coming from a very small group of Peronists who are in desperate need of attention and aren’t really certain what they’re protesting against. I’m sure they’d all come over for tea if I invited them. None of this discourages me.”
Her role in Evita, surprisingly enough, did garner acclaim, with the singer winning a Golden Globe for her performance. So maybe Madonna did have the potential to be a Hollywood star within her after all, she just rarely knew how to use it.
