Actor Julia Garner has opened up about how she landed the role of Madonna in the forthcoming queen of pop biopic.
Auditions for the film took place in February 2022, with potential actors reportedly taking part in a “bootcamp” overseen by Madonna herself.
The 31-year-old Ozark star fought off stiff competition from stars including Florence Pugh, Alexa Demie, and Sydney Sweeney to be cast as the singer in the highly anticipated movie.
Speaking on a recent episode of the SmartLess podcast, Garner said the film is “supposed to still happen” despite rumours the project was scrapped in January 2023.
The actor, who is “such a fan of Madonna’s”, said her audition for the coveted part “just came about”.
“I knew they were doing a project and making a movie about it, and then I went out to audition,” she said.
Garner said that she wanted to see if she could handle the audition given she is not a trained dancer. “I had to learn to dance and then dance in front of her and convince her that I can dance and sing – and sing with her!” she recalled.
To help boost her self-confidence, The Fantastic Four: First Steps star said she asks herself: “‘OK, what would Madonna do?’ Which is convince you that she deserves 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,’” she said.
The Madonna biopic was put on pause in 2023 as the singer embarked on her huge 84-show Celebration Tour, which came to an end in May 2024.
Upon returning home, the “Like a Virgin” singer shared on Instagram that she had resumed work on the script for her biopic. A release date is yet to be announced by Universal Pictures.
Garner has confirmed the film is still in the works, but noted that it could take a while to reach screens. “I feel like anything that’s great… takes a long time,” said the actor.
