American actor Julia Garner is shedding light on her involvement in the long-awaited Madonna biopic, a project the pop icon is directing herself. Speaking on the SmartLess podcast with hosts Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, and Jason Bateman, the 31-year-old confirmed she’s still set to play the Queen of Pop despite long-standing delays.
When Sean brought up the biopic and her casting, the actor who was most recently seen in Fantastic Four: First Steps, replied, “That’s supposed to still happen.”
She went on to share how she came into the role, explaining that she’s “such a fan of Madonna” and “grew up listening” to her music. “It just came about. I knew they were doing a project, making a movie about it, and then I went out to audition,” she added.
Julia also recalled how the audition pushed her out of her comfort zone. “I kind of just wanted to see if I could do it, because I wasn’t a trained dancer and I had to learn how to dance and then dance in front of her and convince her that I can dance, basically, and sing. And sing with her,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Julia also recalled how the audition pushed her out of her comfort zone. “I kind of just wanted to see if I could do it, because I wasn’t a trained dancer and I had to learn how to dance and then dance in front of her and convince her that I can dance, basically, and sing. And sing with her,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}To get into the right mindset, she recalled asking herself, “OK, what would Madonna do? Which is convince you that she deserves, you know, to be in this room, and I owned it. I was kind of like, ‘You can take it or leave it, but if you leave it, if I leave, then that’s on you.’”
Though the original film, which was reported to be scrapped in January 2023, Julia insisted the biopic hasn’t been abandoned. “Anything that’s great … takes a long time,” she added.
Madonna, who co-wrote the screenplay with Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson, teased in July 2024 that she was back to working on the script. Earlier this year, Deadline reported that she had teamed up with producer-director Shawn Levy for a new limited series at Netflix based on her life, currently in early development.