Madonna Filmography - Acting

Acting

In 1979, Madonna starred in low-budget feature A Certain Sacrifice. Its release in 1985 coincided with the success of her Like a Virgin album, and Madonna tried to prevent its release. That same year, Madonna made a small cameo appearance as a club singer in the film Vision Quest singing Crazy for You; then garnered commercial and critical success in Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan, a story of a housewife who is fascinated with a woman she only knows by reading messages in the personals section of a New York City tabloid. It was a commercial success and grossed $27 million in the United States alone.

Madonna then appeared in the adventure drama Shanghai Surprise (1986) with then-husband Sean Penn. The film was dismissed by moviegoers and received poor reviews, many of them calling her acting wooden. Subsequent films such as Who's That Girl (1987) and Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) failed to attract commercial or critical success. She was the first choice for the role of "Susie Diamond" in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but famously rejected the part claiming it was "too mushy". This proved to be an unwise decision on her part because the film turned out to be a box-office success and it brought Michelle Pfeiffer to even greater fame.

In 1990, Madonna received good reviews for her turn as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, directed by Warren Beatty and based on Chester Gould's comic strip. Beatty would later surface again in the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (aka In Bed With Madonna) which showed the behind the scenes to the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. In December 1990, it was announced that Madonna had pulled out of the controversial Jennifer Lynch film Boxing Helena.

In 1992, Madonna released two movies. The first was a cameo appearance as a trapeze artist in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog. The black and white film was an homage to German Expressionist cinema, backed by the music of Kurt Weill. She also starred in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own opposite Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Rosie O'Donnell. The film centered on a women's baseball team during World War II and earned Madonna good reviews. It was a big commercial success worldwide especially in North America.

Following the media backlash caused by her Sex book and its companion album Erotica, Madonna starred in the 1993 erotic thriller Body of Evidence with Willem Dafoe and Anne Archer. It was panned by critics and performed poorly at the box office. It caused great controversy in the media due to the explicit sexual content. Later that year, she starred in Dangerous Game opposite Harvey Keitel and James Russo. Considered nihilistic and violent, it had an extremely limited release in New York and Los Angeles. Madonna did however, receive good reviews. Madonna has remarked her dislike of the end result saying of the director Abel Ferrara: "He fucked me over. .. however, I am good in it." This was also the first movie production from Madonna's entertainment company Maverick.

In 1995, Madonna almost got the role of the drug addicted Ginger McKenna in Martin Scorsese's, Casino, though she had secured the role, she lost the part at the last minute to Sharon Stone, who convinced Scorsese to cast her instead. Madonna played a cameo, singing telegram girl in Wayne Wang's Blue in the Face and a witch in Four Rooms. She also made another cameo appearance as a phone sex company owner in Spike Lee's Girl 6 in 1996. Later that year Madonna starred as Eva Perón in the film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. The film marked the first time in America since Desperately Seeking Susan that she was praised for her acting. Madonna had campaigned for the role for nearly ten years and, in December 1994, she wrote a four-page, handwritten letter to director Alan Parker explaining that she would be perfect to play the role. Parker agreed and Madonna took voice lessons to extend her range and researched the life of her character. In January 1997, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but failed to receive a nomination at the Academy Awards, though the song "You Must Love Me" won the Oscar for Best Song. Both "You Must Love Me" and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" were hit singles.

Madonna's follow-up to Evita was another critically panned role as Abbie, a woman who decides to have a baby with her gay best friend, in the film The Next Best Thing (2000) directed by John Schlesinger. In America, the film started off strong on its opening week with $15 million, but this quickly diminished.

Swept Away followed in 2002, and was another critical and commercial failure. The remake of an Italian film by Lina Wertmüller in 1975 was the first big screen collaboration between Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie. It received seven Razzie Award nominations, winning five including Worst Actress for Madonna. The movie was only released to a few hundred cinemas in America and was released straight-to-video in Europe. Later that year, Madonna had a short cameo appearance in the James Bond film Die Another Day, and also sang the theme song. In the movie, Madonna played a fencing instructor named Verity who taught at a British academy.

During the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour, a documentary entitled I'm Going to Tell You a Secret was filmed by Jonas Akerlund, showing behind the scenes footage of the tour. It was premiered on MTV in November 2005. In late 2004, she provided the voice of Princess Selenia in the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles, which was released in January 2007. It was directed by Luc Besson and has been a commercial success worldwide with two sequels already in the planning.

She had originally been selected to play the title role in Music of the Heart, however she was replaced by Meryl Streep two weeks before filming began.

Madonna regularly lends her support to films that personally interest her such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and Slumdog Millionaire. She also supported ex-husband Sean Penn in his Best Male Actor Award for Milk at the 2009 Academy Awards.