Jimmy Nail on Evita

Continuing with MadonnaTribe‘s 10th year celebration of Madonna‘s most recognized movie: Evita; we bring you what Jimmy Nail had to say about getting the part of Magaldi and working with the leading lady.

“I think it’s because I am one of the few actors who can also sing a bit. You’d be surprised how few combine the two. And most of them are in Evita!”
Parker himself, however, was in no doubt about why he chose the then 42-year-old Geordie to play Magaldi.

“It is because the guy is one of the most talented entertainers around and I wanted to see some of that talent in the movie I was making,” he said. “I was even prepared to put up with some nonsense to achieve it.

“Jimmy’s TV work has been splendid. But he did have a reputation for being difficult. I think it speaks volumes for my opinion of him that I was prepared to endure the difficult moments for the sake of having him.”

According to both men, such difficult moments were few and far between during the making of Evita. Nail said: “I know Alan referred to me initially as `the difficult Jimmy Nail’ but after a few weeks he became less suspicious of me.

“In fact, midway through filming, he came up and said, `I thought you were going to be impossible to work with but you’re not, are you?'”

But what of his time with Madonna? Once again there were reports of rifts. “I went out for a meal with Madonna on Friday and we had a good time,” Nail told the Chronicle on the run-up to the movie’s release. “There is no problem at all. The Press have a habit of making up stories, of inventing problems when they simply don’t exist. Madonna and I got on really well, and that’s all there is to it.”
For more on MadonnaTribe‘s 10th year Evita celebration visit our EVITA shrine by clicking the image below.

Based on an article written by Gordon Barr for The Evening Chronicle.