Spiegel Interview: Full Madonna interview translated

Our community member DJ Cooky has just translated the full new Madonna interview posted in German by der Spiegel for MadonnaTribe readers. Here’s your first look.

“I’m not a dictator”

Pop-diva Madonna, 49, about her debut as a director with “Filth and Wisdom”, about how she deals with fame and about her commitment in saving the nature.

SPIEGEL:
Madonna, concerning your career in music, you´re on top: You just won a Grammy, in March you will be admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this spring your long awaited album will be released. Talking about the film industry, you haven´t been that succesful. The critics for you as an actress have been devastating, and rather few pepople wanted to see the films you played in. Now you came to Berlin to present your debut in directing with “Filth and Wisdom”. Are you a masochist?

Madonna:
You forget, that this time I´m not the actress. I´m sitting here as a director and that´s really a new chapter for me. Actually I feel more comfortable with this role rather than the other.

SPIEGEL:
Why?

Madonna:
Dorectors are telling stories and that´s close to me. As an actress I´m just a part of an external story und I basically felt uneasy with that the whole time.
As a director I can put my view into the story.

SPIEGEL:
Because you generally want to be the boss and in charge of things?

Madonna:
No, it´s not like that. Of course, it´s about controll. On the other hand I´m not totally in charge of things as the director, because the result comes from the whole team and cooperation. I had the script written already with someone and dealt with cameramen, actors and technicians.
I love it when elements do work out.

SPIEGEL:
But only, when you´ve got the last word, right?

Madonna:
Of course, I´m the one who, at a certain point says: Alright, that´s the way we do it! It is because we are working on my vision. But I couldn´t realize it on my own.

SPIEGEL:
Did your husband, director Guy Ritchie, support you?

Madonna:
He gave me good advice beforehand. He said: You have to be sure, where you wanna lead things. If you´re nervous and if that is obvious to the others, you will blew it.

SPIEGEL:
People don´t really think that you have self doubt. Or is Madonna´s ego more fragile than one might think? When was the last time you were nervous?

Madonna:
That´s what makes me a good actross, right? Belive me, I´m nervous very often, when things are new to me and I want to make a good impression. And believe me how nervous I have been when the shooting for this movie began. I was afraid, that all those professionals, who had worked with famous directors before, wouldn´t take me seriously.

SPIEGEL:
And did it work out?

Madonna:
The first day of shooting was very hard. Of course an experienced cameraman is not expecting me to tell him where to place the equipment.
I really had to take care of to be taken seriously.

SPIEGEL:
From your work experience in the studio you must have gotten used to to be told by others?

Madonna:
Yes, it´s kind of the same thing. But I´m not a dictator. I really like to listen to the cameraman´s advice, when he proposes a different angle to me, and so I take it seriously when Justin Timberlake tells me in the studio, that the song might sound different.

SPIEGEL:
How do you cope with criticism? Isn´t it sometimes risky, to tell you, the star, that one of your ideas might not be that good afer all?

Madonna:
That depends on the individual case. If anyone has a better idea than me, I don´t have a problem to accept that. But, for example when directing a scene, and I´m convinced of my vision and the way I want things to go, then that´s it.

SPIEGEL:
In the story, that you directed, young people are struggling to fulfil their dreams of a career. This looks a lot like as if it has been influenced by your personal career.

Madonna:
Yes, I wanted to write a script, that has a strong relation to my personal life. If you want to tell a good story, then you should talk about things first, that you really know about. Like thirty years ago a came from Michigan to New York. As a child I took dancing lessons, and dreamt of a career as a ballerina and then faced the naked truth of New York. As one the crowd of dancers, with the same visions and the same poverty. We all were hungry and needed a job.

SPIEGEL:
In your film an up-and-coming ballerina has to learn, that she oughta sell her beautiful body. Did that count for you, too, as a young Madonna?

Madonna:
Well, that´s a bit of an exaggeration talking about my wisdom.
It´s an alteration of the maxim: Whatever the cost, I will achieve it. On the other hand, that´s true.

SPIEGEL:
What is more difficult, becoming famous or staying famous?

Madonna:
Oh, it´s a lot more difficult to stay on top. It´s easy to enter a club, but rather difficult to survive in there.

SPIEGEL:
Talking about nowadays; is it more difficult being famous in the complete digital world with Internet and camera phones, than in the eighties when you started your career?

Madonna:
That´s just a myth. It was always exhausting to be famous. A lot of artists -both in the film business and music industry- suffered from their fame, Marilyn Monroe for example. It´s brutal, if you´re constantly looked at, being reviewed and judged. When you walk on the streets with your children, when it is reported about and five people aim their camera phones at you, then that is surreal. And I don´t really mean me, rather Princess Diana or Britney Spears.

SPIEGEL:
So what´s your masterplan to survive in this world?

Madonna:
There is no secret. The thing is, that there are people with survival techniques, that enable them to survive rough times. Not everyone is made for a public life. And believe me, it is hard not to let get all those nonsense to you, that people spread. Sometimes I feel like an animal being hunted. It is helpful to have a good self confidence before you become famous. And it is not helpful to be surrounded by people, who treat you like the demigod, and who don´t keep in mind the difference between illusion and reality.

SPIEGEL:
You shot the film in London, where you live most of the time; alongside with the press brochure, you worship European directors such as Federico Fellini. Have you become more of a European, than an American?

Madonna:
No, I have always been fascinated by Euorpe. Already as a teen, I developed a certain kind of obsession for art of the ancient world. For one year I attended the University of Michigan, where there has been a film club, that weekly showed European films. I was deeply impressed by the old Italian and French films. Actually, I don´t have a favourite film or director, but Godard deeply influenced me shooting my film.

SPIEGEL:
Ecological awareness ist quite fashionable nowadays. You obviously seem to be a fan of Ex-Vice-President and “eco-preacher” Al Gore. Do you still fly on privat jet?

Madonna:
I´m excited about Al Gore´s film about the climatic desaster. Because all lamenting about art and creativity is really ridiculous, if we have to live on a busted planet. And: Yes, I did change my life, and I hope you did too!

SPIEGEL:
Do you follow the campaign trail in America?

Madonna:
That´s exactly what I do: observing! If you now want to know, who I will vote for, my answer is: no idea! I don´t really made up my mind. But if you do want a statement: I´m absolutely no fan of George W. Bush!

SPIEGEL:
You´re turning 50 on August, 16th. Is there going to be a big, or a rather small party?

Madonna:
A party obviously.

SPIEGEL:
Rumour has it, there´s going to be a big celebration.

Madonna:
I used to throw big parties.

SPIEGEL:
Reportedly, there will be a concert at the Central Park in New York. That´s what has been written in english tabloid magazines.

Madonna:
That´s just nonsense that you shouldn´t believe.

SPIEGEL:
Did you ever perform a search on google about yourself?

Madonna:
I´m not mad. I use the internet only as a dictionary.

SPIEGEL:
And what was the thing you searched last for?

Madonna:
Something about the writer Rudyard Kipling. I wanted to know, if he has been a Nazi. In lot of first copies of his books there was the swastika symbol shown. But I found out, that he spend a lot of time in India and that the sawstika sign in that country is an old symbol of luck.

Interview by Christoph Dallach
Translation by DJ Cooky