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Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.

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Speaker 2: A quick warning for those affected by depictions of physical

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Speaker 2: and sexual abuse. This episode details both the stories about

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Speaker 2: Madonna are insane. She's one of the most daring, explosive

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Speaker 2: artists of all time. She was raped at an early age,

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Speaker 2: She was targeted by the Vatican for her performances and

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Speaker 2: nearly arrested in front of fifty thousand people for simulating masturbation.

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Speaker 2: She repeatedly pushed herself through her art, using it as

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Speaker 2: a weapon to fight off abusive directors, to overcome overbearing producers,

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Speaker 2: to outrun breathless paparazzi, and to outlast a list significant others.

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Speaker 2: Madonna obliterated mainstream attitudes about sex, refused to be slutshamed,

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Speaker 2: and pushed herself creatively right up to the limits of

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Speaker 2: the law. She was a megawatt star who would not

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Speaker 2: be dimmed, not by critics, not by knife wielding maniacs,

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Speaker 2: and certainly not by hot headed machismo narcissus. Along the way,

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Speaker 2: she made great music, some of the greatest pop music

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Speaker 2: ever made. That music I played you at the top

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Speaker 2: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a

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Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called Mello Push Push MK one.

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Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the

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Speaker 2: rights to Mickey by Tony Basil. And why would I

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Speaker 2: play you that specific slice of choreographed Cheerleader Cheese? Could

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Speaker 2: I afford it? Because that was the number one song

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Speaker 2: in America on December sixteenth, nineteen eighty two, And that

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Speaker 2: was the day Madonna took the stage for the first

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Speaker 2: time at New York City's Danceteria and began to slowly

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Speaker 2: but powerfully push herself into American consciousness, a small step

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Speaker 2: that would lead to scandal, controversy, ense expression, an icon status.

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Speaker 2: On this episode, sex controversy, rape, Cheerleader Cheese, and Madonna.

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Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. The video is grainy,

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Speaker 2: so poor that it immediately smacks of surveillance footage. Madonna,

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Speaker 2: nineteen years old is lying on the floor of a

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Speaker 2: downtown diner. She's just been raped. She's sobbing, mumbling, frantic,

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Speaker 2: scared and nonsensical. She can taste fear in her mouth, adrenaline.

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Speaker 2: Her ripe breast is exposed. She's wearing all white stretched

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Speaker 2: pants and an oversized men's button down shirt that she

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Speaker 2: borrowed from her boyfriend, who's comforting her. He just made

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Speaker 2: the scene around him. The number of restaurant onlookers grows

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Speaker 2: to a small gaggle. They're, no doubt, hardened by their city,

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Speaker 2: but not so jaded that a freshly raped teenage girl

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Speaker 2: lying on the floor doesn't warrant a curious second look.

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Speaker 2: Madonna cries, Madonna moans, Madonna writhes on the sticky tile floor.

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Speaker 2: Her boyfriend swears revenge. It's a scene one of the

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Speaker 2: many urban storms that swell up daily in Manhattan. Stirred

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Speaker 2: by violence, stifled by cynicism. Madonna is in a familiar position,

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Speaker 2: the center of the storm, a position she seeks, a

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Speaker 2: position she craves, a position she pushes herself into, even

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Speaker 2: in this moment, not as a raped woman, but as

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Speaker 2: an actress playing a raped woman. The part was her

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Speaker 2: first from the independent film A Certain Sacrifice, shot guerrilla

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Speaker 2: style around the city across nineteen teen seventy nine. In

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty, three, years before Madonna would become a star.

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Speaker 2: In decades before Madonna would confirm to Harper's Bazaar that

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Speaker 2: in her first year in New York, she was raped

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Speaker 2: for real, held with a knife to her throat on

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Speaker 2: a steaming hot Manhattan roof, and forced into performing filatio.

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Speaker 2: Most rape victims would understandably not want to relive their

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Speaker 2: trauma on film a mere year later, But for a

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Speaker 2: hungry artist like Madonna, this was an opportunity, an opportunity

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Speaker 2: for real expression, real art, transcendence, an opportunity to express herself,

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Speaker 2: push past her own limits, and achieve true artistry, to

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Speaker 2: stand out as the undeniable force of nature she knew

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Speaker 2: she was, which she knew the world would see too someday.

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Speaker 2: New York City, Madonna's New York City in the late

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Speaker 2: seventies and early eighties was a beautiful mess. Reggie Jackson,

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Speaker 2: Jimmy Breslin, garbage strikes, the Son of Sam, the Bronx

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Speaker 2: on fire, punk rock, street art in vain, eating high

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Speaker 2: brow galleries, the advent of hip hop and cheap rents.

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Speaker 2: It all felt like an explosion of creativity, a place

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Speaker 2: and a time where culture shifting music and art was conceived,

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Speaker 2: and Madonna was there and affected by all of it.

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Speaker 2: Blondie Bascot, Keith Herron, fab Five, Freddy, Andy Warhol, and

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Speaker 2: Moore not to mention countless punk rock and dance club

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Speaker 2: kids moving to the rhythm of New York's pulsing crime,

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Speaker 2: grime and electricity. It shaped Madonna, fueled Madonna in a

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Speaker 2: way it made Madonna. New York City doesn't quit ever.

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Speaker 2: It pushes itself into every pore of your being until

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Speaker 2: you become it, are expelled by it or killed by it.

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Speaker 2: The city treated Madonna Luise Jacone no different. The roots

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Speaker 2: of Madonna's creativity and virgin horror ethos were well established

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Speaker 2: before she made it to Manhattan from suburban Detroit in

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight, growing up working class Catholic in Rochester, Michigan.

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Speaker 2: But New York City and its merry go round of

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Speaker 2: creative characters helped Madonna turn her essence into the iconic

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Speaker 2: image that turned the world on. In New York City

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Speaker 2: at the time was one big come on, How far

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Speaker 2: could you push it? It was a place for one day,

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Speaker 2: you were just another face in the crowd at Maxis,

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Speaker 2: Kansas City or CBGB's, and with the right timing, be

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Speaker 2: discovered made famous a lucky star, seemingly overnight. At least

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Speaker 2: that's how it seemed for those who knew Madonna at

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Speaker 2: the time. But stardom doesn't happen overnight for anyone. It's

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Speaker 2: a combination of hustle, timing, and expression, three things. Madonna

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Speaker 2: was a no short supply of, not to mention, talent.

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Speaker 2: The Clash were on stage at Bond's International Casino. In

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Speaker 2: between songs, Joe Strummer was chastising the Times Square crowd

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Speaker 2: for the less than warm welcome they'd given the opening

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Speaker 2: act Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was a

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Speaker 2: rock and roll crowd, and Flash to them anyways, scratching

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Speaker 2: records with a suede caangle on under his headphones, absent

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Speaker 2: any life instruments on stage might as well have been

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Speaker 2: an alien. Joe's Strummer, the Clash frontman, wasn't having it.

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Speaker 2: Madonna in the crowd that night thought Joe was decidedly

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Speaker 2: more attractive when he was angry than when he was strumming,

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Speaker 2: but still nowhere near as attractive as Clash bassist Paul Simonon,

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Speaker 2: who let Madonna and her two friends sneak in through

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Speaker 2: the stage door, just as he'd done for countless other

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Speaker 2: seemingly anonymous fans.

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Speaker 1: Who'd shown up without a ticket.

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Speaker 2: The Clash were in the middle of the now famous

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Speaker 2: seventeen night run at Bonds, a stretch that started out

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Speaker 2: as eight shows, but after greedy promoters oversold the venue,

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Speaker 2: the band had righteously agreed to keep playing shows until

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Speaker 2: every ticket was honored for their fans. It resulted in

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Speaker 2: a month long residency with a mind boggling run of

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Speaker 2: openers including The Dead, Kennedy's Kroud, The Fall, Bad Brains,

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Speaker 2: and Lee Scratch Perry. The Clash's generous attitude towards their

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Speaker 2: fans extended beyond ticket holders, to the point of just

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Speaker 2: letting into whoever showed up.

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Speaker 1: Madonna didn't have a ticket, but she pushed her way in.

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Speaker 2: When she made the scene, she took note of the

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Speaker 2: frumpy yet devastatingly cool Jean Michel Basquet, the visionary, iconoclastic

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Speaker 2: street artist who is in the midst of becoming one

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Speaker 2: of the most sought after gallery artists in the world.

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Speaker 2: A year later, with his star in even more intense ascent,

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Speaker 2: he and Madonna would move in together. Eventually he gets

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Speaker 2: strung out on heroin. Most people in her position, a

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Speaker 2: twenty five year old struggling to make her own ascent

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Speaker 2: through the downtown art and music scene while dating one

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Speaker 2: of the youngest, coolest, most talented, rising visual artists at

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Speaker 2: the time would have held on, tried to make the

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Speaker 2: relationship work out. Junk or no junk, but not Madonna.

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Speaker 2: Drugs weren't her scene, so Jean Michel Basquet was out.

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Speaker 2: Madonna Dumpton pushed on. Madonna was disciplined, hungry, some would

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Speaker 2: say desperate, but that rap was ridiculous at best, sexist

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Speaker 2: at worst. One man's discipline is another man's desperation. If

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Speaker 2: Madonna were a man, would her career origins be seen

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Speaker 2: as desperate. Probably not. She saw what she wanted and

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Speaker 2: there was nothing. There was no one who was going

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Speaker 2: to hold her back from her goal of becoming a

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Speaker 2: singing sensation and then an actress, a modern Marilyn Monroe

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Speaker 2: by way of downtown sheet but you know who could

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Speaker 2: actually act. Her ambition, off putting as it was to

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Speaker 2: powerful men in the music business at the time, was

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Speaker 2: part of her charm to the legions of young women

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Speaker 2: who would constitute her early fan base. By the time

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Speaker 2: Madonna recorded her first singles Everybody and Burning Up, she

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Speaker 2: was equally entrenched in downtown punk and dance club culture,

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Speaker 2: two scenes that took themselves a little too seriously, but

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Speaker 2: Madonna seemed to treat it all with the mischievous wink

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Speaker 2: and nod of a free spirited Catholic girl next door.

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Speaker 1: To those just outside her orbit.

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Speaker 2: Fans in particular, it seemed like Madonna was always in

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Speaker 2: on a joke that you'd never quite get, but that

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Speaker 2: compelled you'd want to.

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Speaker 1: Know more about her.

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Speaker 2: With an arm full of rubb bracelets, crossed necklaces, and

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Speaker 2: mesh half shirts, she exuded mischief, sensuality, and sex. She

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Speaker 2: wasn't the most beautiful girl in the club, but she

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Speaker 2: was by far the most interesting. She wasn't the stunning

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Speaker 2: Debbie Harry, the suicide blonde, crushing studded hearts from the

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Speaker 2: stage at Sebe's, And she wasn't the beautiful beyond comparishade,

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Speaker 2: slinging drinks from the bar, a dance ateria and frightening

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Speaker 2: young love struck post punk adolescence in the awkward silence.

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Speaker 2: She was Madonna, and she was on to something else.

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Speaker 2: Her style was her own leather and lace fashion, manifest

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Speaker 2: as the version Horde dichotomy. She playfully tinkered with part

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Speaker 2: vintage punk, part Catholic schoolgirl. In trouble, and perhaps more important,

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Speaker 2: she flaunted her vulnerability. She wilfully exposed her round belly,

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Speaker 2: treated it as an asset as opposed to a physical liability.

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Speaker 2: At a time when male record executives expected female singing stars,

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Speaker 2: at least the ones who they wanted to top the charts,

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Speaker 2: to be the perfect image of femininity, rail thin, perfect

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Speaker 2: in body and in manners. If Madonna's imperfect looks didn't

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Speaker 2: betray her outsider status, then her accents certainly did.

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Speaker 1: It was bridge and tunnel.

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Speaker 2: Betty Boop by way of Midwestern adolescents. It was decidedly uncool,

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Speaker 2: not of New York, non regional, its own thing. As

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Speaker 2: a result, it was a thing that, along with her

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Speaker 2: humor and confidence in her looks, turned most men on,

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Speaker 2: and this outsider status made her supremely relatable to teenage

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Speaker 2: girls and marginalized gay kids. Madonna immersed herself from the

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Speaker 2: growing dance club scene of the early eighties in Manhattan.

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Speaker 2: In club culture, a culture that celebrated and flaunted sex,

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Speaker 2: was as big an influence on Madonna as downtown punk.

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Speaker 2: Her sexuality was hers to play with, and she was

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Speaker 2: unafraid to share it with the world. All of this

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Speaker 2: is on display in her first single to hit the

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Speaker 2: Billboard US Top ten, Borderline. It's hard for me to

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Speaker 2: explain the greatness and appeal of Madonna's Borderline. The opening

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Speaker 2: notes on the electric piano got me every time I

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Speaker 2: hear them. It's a simple, childlike sound and melancholic melody

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Speaker 2: that looks back to the seventies. And then the beat

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Speaker 2: comes in, and all of a sudden, you're in a

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Speaker 2: new decade, onto something fresh, fully committed to the promise

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Speaker 2: of the unknown. The feeling is similar to the beginnings

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Speaker 2: of any great relationship. You feel comfortable and safe, while

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Speaker 2: at the same time excited about where it's all going.

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Speaker 2: The single was Madonna's first big come on. Her flirtatious

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Speaker 2: glance across the bar, her nonchalant bump on the dance floor.

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Speaker 2: It was electric. The casual touch from her hand pushing it,

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Speaker 2: the whisper in your ear, keep pushing it. The mischievous laugh,

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Speaker 2: heart melting, the smile, the pout, the abandoned the control.

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Speaker 2: A total turn on. Madonna had made a pass in America.

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Speaker 2: In America was smitten. Sean Penn wasn't fucking around. He

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Speaker 2: was going to shoot him. Down, paparazzi, parasites, vultures circling

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Speaker 2: their Malibu home on his Madonna's wedding day. The shotgun

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Speaker 2: was missing in the house. Sean was manic, Madonna was

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Speaker 2: laughing as usual.

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Speaker 1: It was all a joke.

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Speaker 2: Annoying, yes, a possible harbinger of what her life would become,

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Speaker 2: an endless test of her so far bottomless appetite for attention,

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Speaker 2: but in the moment, pretty damn funny, and if she

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Speaker 2: were being honest with herself, totally exciting. Sean didn't see

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Speaker 2: it that way, because Sean saw everything through the gaze

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Speaker 2: of a serious artist. He was just her type, currently

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Speaker 2: taking his at bet as one of those next Brando,

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Speaker 2: next Puccino types that come along every decade or so.

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Speaker 2: To him, the helicopters were a big fucking problem. They

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Speaker 2: were the kinder problem only a power couple as rich

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Speaker 2: and famous as he and Madonna could even have. The

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Speaker 2: helicopters would drown out the sound of the ceremony, making

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Speaker 2: it impossible to hear, which was the reason everyone was

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Speaker 2: there in the first place, to hear Sean and Madonna

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Speaker 2: proclaim their deep love.

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Speaker 1: For one another.

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Speaker 2: It was the reason she found it funny and the

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Speaker 2: reason he couldn't stand it, and at least in that way,

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Speaker 2: they balanced each other's intensity. Plus Seann got word that

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Speaker 2: the choppers were freaking out the guests, especially Martin Sheen,

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Speaker 2: who was rumored to be flashing back into intense paranoia

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Speaker 2: back to his days in the Philippines when he was

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Speaker 2: filming Apocalypse Now experiencing a very real alcoholic meltdown and

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Speaker 2: using it as fuel for his performance on a set

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Speaker 2: drowning a cocaine LSD and ma cheese moo, sharing prop

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Speaker 2: helicopters with the Filipino military w dodging revolutionary guerrillas turned

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Speaker 2: on and tuned way the fuck out. Sheen had replaced

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Speaker 2: Harvey Kaitel, who, according to Manic director Francis Ford Coppola,

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Speaker 2: didn't have the acting chops. So Martin Sheen poured himself

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Speaker 2: into the role and ended up having a heart attack

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Speaker 2: on set for his efforts, and at the moment and

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Speaker 2: Sean Penn's backyard, it looked like he might be having

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Speaker 2: another one. Either that or like you might snap like

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Speaker 2: an actual shell shocked Vietnam Vett instead of the actor

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Speaker 2: who famously played one in the epic War film. Additionally,

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Speaker 2: Martin Sheen's sons, Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, looked bored.

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Speaker 2: So did Tom Cruise, and so did Andy Warhol. But

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Speaker 2: Andy always looks bored, and to him, Charlie, Emilio and

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Speaker 2: Tom looked good enough to keep his mind occupied while

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Speaker 2: Sean and Madonna sorted out the helicopter thing. Where the

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Speaker 2: fuck was the shotgun? Sean gave up and settled on

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Speaker 2: dispatching a friend to etch into the sand on the

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Speaker 2: beach below his home in giant twenty five foot letters

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Speaker 2: fuck you as a silent scream. At the Vulture photographers

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Speaker 2: circling above, Madonna laughed, she looked great and all white

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Speaker 2: with her black top hat. What the hell was all

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Speaker 2: that about? Andy Warhol wondered. Borhol was insightful about celebrity

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Speaker 2: in this case, as he was in all cases. What

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Speaker 2: the hell was all that about? Is exactly what America

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Speaker 2: would be saying about the marriage that began that day

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Speaker 2: until the day it dissolved inevitably like the grains of

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Speaker 2: sand that made up the giant fuck you on the beach.

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Speaker 2: But for the four years in between, Sean and Madonna's

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Speaker 2: marriage was a straight up tidle wave. Madonna, for her part,

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Speaker 2: entered into it with clear eyes about their chances. She

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Speaker 2: understood that when two like minded, volatile artists got together,

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Speaker 2: that they could either spur each other to greatness or

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Speaker 2: flame out in epic fashion. A year after the Big

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Speaker 2: Fuck You in the Sand, they're on the island of

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Speaker 2: Macau filming a movie together Shanghai surprise, as Madonna suspected

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Speaker 2: their union had become a non stop test of endurance against.

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Speaker 1: The swarm of paparazzi.

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Speaker 2: When Sean was arrested on the island for dangling a

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Speaker 2: photographer over a balcony, she wasn't surprised. She might have

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Speaker 2: even liked it a little. She was surprised, however, to

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Speaker 2: learn Sean to escape from an unlocked jail cell and

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Speaker 2: high tailed at the Hong Kong on the first ferry

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Speaker 2: he could find. The entire troubled production fled Macau, and

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Speaker 2: they were able to keep the incident out of the papers.

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Speaker 2: But Sean Penn would not get less volatile when they

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Speaker 2: were back home. If the pen Chaconi marriage was meant

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Speaker 2: to push two artists to new heights, the fiasco and

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Speaker 2: bombing of Shanghai's Surprise was a loss on Sean Penn's turf.

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Speaker 2: The movie Biz Madonna the musician. She was in the

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Speaker 2: middle of an unprecedented creative high. With Borderline, she had

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Speaker 2: crossed the threshold into stardom. But when her second album,

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Speaker 2: Like a Virgin dropped in nineteen eighty four, she became

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Speaker 2: a true pop icon. In on the joke virgin horrrack

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Speaker 2: she had developed in the ripe dance and punk scenes

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Speaker 2: of New York resonated across the globe, and it didn't

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Speaker 2: come easy. Madonna had a stare down veteran hit maker

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Speaker 2: Nile Rogers, who was producing the album. He didn't believe

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Speaker 2: in the song, thought it was a novelty bit Madonna

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Speaker 2: held firm. She was undaunted by the more experienced, more

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Speaker 2: successful man sitting in the producer's chair, and she insisted

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Speaker 2: on recording the track it goes without saying whose instincts

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Speaker 2: were right? The artist had a vision, a vision or

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Speaker 2: producer at the time couldn't see. She was rewarded for

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Speaker 2: her commitment, as was Rogers, who eventually bought in and

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00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:39,560
Speaker 2: produced a tight sounding monster. Like a Virgin became a

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Speaker 2: massive smash. Madonna's first number one hit, followed immediately by

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Speaker 2: Material Girl Angel Into the Groove, Dress You Up, All,

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00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:51,040
Speaker 2: cracking the Billboard Top five. Every single over half of

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00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 2: the nine track album was a stone cold hit. Madonna

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00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:00,280
Speaker 2: had pushed herself in the mainstream American consciousness. She was

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00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:03,359
Speaker 2: a megawat star, and nothing was going to dimm or shine,

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Speaker 2: not even leaked nude photos from her days as a

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00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:09,080
Speaker 2: model back in New York struggling to make it. When

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00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:11,560
Speaker 2: the pictures were leaked to Playboy without her approval in

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, she refused to be shamed. Unlike Sean Penn,

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Speaker 2: Madonna could handle the exposure. No shame, no pain, Virgin

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Speaker 2: whoror what's the difference?

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Speaker 1: In the end? We all sink beneath the sun? Madonna

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Speaker 1: pushed on.

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00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,240
Speaker 2: She owned live aid, performing alongside titans of the music

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Speaker 2: industry at the time, from Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger

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00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:36,840
Speaker 2: to Patty LaBelle and Tina Turner in front of a

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Speaker 2: live audience of one hundred thousand and a global simulcast

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Speaker 2: audience of one point nine billion, nearly forty percent of

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Speaker 2: the Earth's population, and she crushed it. Her movie career

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00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,119
Speaker 2: took off with the success of Desperately Seeking Susan in

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Speaker 2: her third album, True Blue, dedicated to Sean Penn, cemented

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Speaker 2: her status as the Queen of pop, selling twenty five

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Speaker 2: million records around the world. But all this glory brought

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Speaker 2: even more attention. She and Sean had driven each other

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00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,800
Speaker 2: to new extremes, and among the two stars at the time,

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00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,840
Speaker 2: it was Madonna who truly transcended from the top of

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Speaker 2: her craft to global icon. They inevitably but amicably divorced

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine, and with the nineties on the horizon,

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Speaker 2: Madonna was freer than ever to push cultural and sexual

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Speaker 2: boundaries right up to the limits of the law.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this were were were?

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Speaker 2: The after party was lame. It was always lame, besides

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Speaker 2: by Madonna's estimation who had time to party? Which megastar performer?

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Speaker 2: Which singers are actually partying? After putting on a show

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00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,440
Speaker 2: on the scale of Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour, Madonna playing

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00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 2: multiple characters throughout the course of her set list Diva, Showgirl,

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00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:53,680
Speaker 2: and of course both the Virgin and the Horror, numerous

339
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,520
Speaker 2: complicated set changes and iron Ran Fountain had looking Metropolis

340
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 2: set a cabaret set, a religious set, an Art Deco set,

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00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:04,120
Speaker 2: and a Dick Tracy set dedicated to promoting her new

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00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:08,159
Speaker 2: film with her new boyfriend, the encouragible Warren Baty. There

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00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,480
Speaker 2: were stage costumes designed by Jean Paul Gautier, a ten

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Speaker 2: piece band, eight dancers, a film crew, a production staff

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00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 2: of one hundred eighteen tractor trailers, a Giant seven forty

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Speaker 2: seven playing to haul all of the equipment around, and

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Speaker 2: a private jet to get her the fuck out of

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Speaker 2: there after the show. But no, the damn after party,

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Speaker 2: Prince Michael Jackson, Elton John, even Mick Jagger and the

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Speaker 2: Rolling Stones. Madonna didn't understand, first of all, how does

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Speaker 2: singers do it? Sit there in a cramped, barely furnished

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Speaker 2: room in the bowels of a cold stadium, covered in sweat,

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Speaker 2: your adrenaline pulsing through your body, your brain on overdrive,

354
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Speaker 2: your vocal cords strained, and carry on conversations about nothing

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00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:53,399
Speaker 2: with famous people you don't know but who act as

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Speaker 2: if your lifelong friends, when really all you want to

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00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:58,960
Speaker 2: do is compare show notes with your dancers and your

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00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 2: band and sell break the herculean task you all just

359
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 2: pulled off. Staging a highly complex, physically demanding, emotionally draining

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Speaker 2: show in front of thirty thousand people. But no, the

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00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 2: after party LA was the worst. For obvious reasons. The

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Speaker 2: biggest starfuckers on the planet are stars themselves. Madonna thought

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00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 2: it was silly, the Hollywood ass grabbing, but Warren Batty

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Speaker 2: took it seriously. This was, after all, his town. He'd

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00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 2: been on the A List for twenty five years, a

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Speaker 2: career player in Hollywood Land. The social conventions of celebrity,

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00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,200
Speaker 2: the clubbiness of it, the premium on privacy and appearances,

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00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,360
Speaker 2: the coated dews and don'ts. They were all just sacred

369
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,919
Speaker 2: cows for the slaughter to Madonna, But from Beatty's perspective,

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Speaker 2: they were to be taken seriously as rights of passage.

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Speaker 1: Into his inner sanctum.

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Speaker 2: Al Pacino, Lionel Ritchie, Chuka Khan, Mandy Pittinkin, Olivia Newton,

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Speaker 2: John Martin Scorsese, they were all there with it backstage,

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Speaker 2: and so was Kevin Costner, who, despite his A List

375
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Speaker 2: blockbuster status at the time in nineteen ninety, was.

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Speaker 1: Awkward as fuck. When he met Madonna, he told.

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Speaker 2: Her, in all earnestness that her show was quote unquote

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00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,440
Speaker 2: neat like he'd just seen Annie Hall for the first

379
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Speaker 2: time before coming to the show that night, but didn't

380
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Speaker 2: get the joke. Neat went out, I would say at

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Speaker 2: the turn of the century. Madonna was repulsed by Costner's lameness,

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Speaker 2: and as soon as he split, she turned to her

383
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Speaker 2: friends and pantomime vomiting to express her displeasure with the star.

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Speaker 2: Neat Baby was not pleased, but the jam backstage was

385
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 2: no surprise. Neither were the jam stadiums. Madonna was one

386
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 2: of the biggest attractions in the world. The production, the creativity,

387
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 2: and the performances. The whole show was novel for the time.

388
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,080
Speaker 2: It was a hot ticket, selling nearly half a million

389
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 2: seats in the first two hours after they went on

390
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Speaker 2: sale and eventually grossing sixty million dollars. And it wasn't

391
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,880
Speaker 2: without controversy. The show was a full on theatrical production

392
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:06,880
Speaker 2: exploring Catholic sexuality on stage. The grueling craft work took

393
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 2: its toll, and mid tour shows had to be canceled

394
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 2: so Madonna's throat could recover off stage. Catholic watchdog groups

395
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 2: across the US and Europe protested the subject matter, and

396
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 2: when the Blonde Ambition tour hit Italy. The Vatican threatened

397
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,480
Speaker 2: to outright ban Madonna from performing. But in nineteen ninety

398
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 2: for Madonna, nothing was more controversial than her show in Toronto.

399
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 2: Madonna was sleepwalking through Where's the Party on stage at

400
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 2: the Skydime fifty three thousand people more if you counted

401
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 2: the mouth breathing Canadian Mounties on hand to bust Madonna.

402
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,199
Speaker 2: She went ahead with her performance of Like a Virgin,

403
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,439
Speaker 2: where she had been infamously simulating masturbation as part of

404
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 2: her dance routine. The song was coming up next. It

405
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 2: was all Madonna could think about when she got the

406
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 2: news backstage before the set that she was being arrested

407
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 2: if she went ahead with the performance. She was immediately defiant.

408
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 2: I'm not changing my fucking show were exact words. Her

409
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 2: defiance quickly turned to exuberance. The thrill of the arrest

410
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 2: was downright exhilarating, as was the prospect of the ensuing

411
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 2: publicity shit storm were she'd to get hauled in for

412
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 2: public masturbation or indecency, or whatever charge the Mountis threw

413
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 2: at her. She refused to be humiliated and shamed. Despite

414
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 2: the smooth talk from Madonna's management authorities weren't budging. Madonna's

415
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 2: camp threatened to cancel the show. The Mounti's held firm.

416
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,719
Speaker 2: She touches herself. She goes to jail. Backstage, the tension

417
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 2: and excitement was palpable. Nicky Harris, a dancer in the show,

418
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 2: told Madonna the cops meant business and that they arrested

419
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:48,400
Speaker 2: Bobby Brown for fucking on stage. Madonna lit up, did

420
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 2: they and then slightly answered, I hope he's in jail

421
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 2: when I get there. And with that, Madonna defiantly walks

422
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 2: on stage, sitting on the plush red velvet covered bed

423
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 2: center stage in a gold bustier, black fishnets and high heels.

424
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 2: Gone is the belly from her borderline days. Her body

425
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 2: is taut, fit, muscular, a dancer's body, a result of

426
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 2: the grueling physical demands of the four month, three continent,

427
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 2: ten country tour. The drums percuss their way into the

428
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 2: beginning of her most identifiable song, like a version, but

429
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 2: they're slower, more sensual. The feel of the live version

430
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 2: of the song is significantly different than the single version.

431
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 2: The tempo is down, less, playful, more seductive. The dance

432
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 2: on the bed is all upper body a Middle Eastern

433
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 2: influenced siren call in the flesh, arms extended, slithering to

434
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 2: the beat like cobras, and then Madonna turns to face

435
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 2: the crowd and begins to slowly sing the words. The

436
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 2: crowd immediately freaks out. Her serpentine arms continued away through

437
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 2: the stage lights above her. The drums kick in. Madonna

438
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 2: rolls on to her back, spreads her long legs, revealing

439
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 2: her gold panty clad crotch, and comes to her knees

440
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 2: on the bed. She grinds her hips into an imaginary

441
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 2: lover beneath her, pushing it. The song continues through the chorus,

442
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,640
Speaker 2: back to the verse, and when she hits the second chorus,

443
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 2: she does another spread eagle and more grinding, more intense,

444
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 2: this time pushing it harder, hotter. Madonna leans into the ride,

445
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 2: straddling her imaginary lover, teasing her hand, begins to rub

446
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 2: her belly, slowly, inching down her navel closer to the crotch.

447
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 2: She moans the vocal refrain, slides her hand back down

448
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 2: her belly again, this time even closer closer to her crotch,

449
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 2: pushing it, dominating her audience of thousands A baseball stadium

450
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 2: jammed with horny inspired fans and a small handful of conservative,

451
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 2: soul crushing Canadian mounties. The song hits the bridge and

452
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 2: Madonna falls onto her back on the bed. Two dancers

453
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 2: at her side caress her arms and back. She rises

454
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,719
Speaker 2: up onto her feet on stage and begins massaging her

455
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 2: Jean Paul Gautiller cone breast and falls into the arms

456
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 2: of her two dancers who take her. She rides beneath them,

457
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 2: still singing, not missing a beat. They mouth her nipples, palm,

458
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,959
Speaker 2: or vagina. The song's tempo picks up. Madonna's hand grabs

459
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 2: her cross. She's on her back, thrusting her hips up.

460
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 2: It's more than sex, it's violence, it's inspired, it's nasty.

461
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,679
Speaker 2: Madonna rolls over onto her stomach on the bed and

462
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,119
Speaker 2: begins frantically dry humping, banging her head and her blonde

463
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 2: hair up and down and up and down and up

464
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:34,919
Speaker 2: and down, her.

465
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: Heeled feet outstretched like a v.

466
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 2: The crowd is freaking out in full throat screaming, cheering,

467
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 2: panting right there alongside her with every thrust, until the

468
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 2: music finally comes down post climax, post coitus. The show

469
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 2: could have ended right there. Madonna's performance of Like a Virgin,

470
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 2: under threat of censorship from Canadian mounties, was so inspired

471
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 2: that there was no need to finish the set, but

472
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 2: of course she did, and in the end there was

473
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 2: no arrest. The authorities, perhaps sensing a potential riot, back

474
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 2: down and Madonna had once again used her art to

475
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 2: win out. In the end, Vanilla Ice took Madonna from behind.

476
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 2: It was staged, but so what it was hot, as

477
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 2: was Madonna wrapped in two other women, all curves, buzz

478
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 2: cuts and tattoos, with a knife to her crotch. Or

479
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 2: Madonna alone in a leather, blindfold studded lingerie with exposed

480
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 2: nipple cutouts, a riding crop between her teeth and hand

481
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 2: between her legs. Mesmerizing and kinky black and white. This

482
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 2: was Madonna's idea of a coffee table book, Sex all caps.

483
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 2: It was to be a literary and visual companion to

484
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 2: her fifth album, Erotica. Sex would sell out its first

485
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 2: edition within a few days, but even as America shelled

486
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 2: out money to peep Madonna's erotic fantasies. With one hand,

487
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 2: it slapped her wrist with the other. Madonna's pushing of

488
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:21,000
Speaker 2: the envelope. Her virgin horror image had always attracted intense criticism,

489
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 2: but after Sex, the criticism reached a new level. Critics

490
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 2: who had once praised her pushing boundaries now trashed her work,

491
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 2: casting her as a trihard slut. Time magazine predicted it'll

492
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 2: be the first aluminum covered soft porn book ever to

493
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 2: grace the remainder bin.

494
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: But they were wrong. Of course.

495
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 2: Today Sex is one of the most in demand out

496
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 2: of print books in the world, but the prudish backlash

497
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 2: of the early nineties was real. As a result of

498
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 2: the hypocritical controversy, Erotica would be Madonna's first record since

499
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three with no number one hits. With all

500
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 2: the noise, the time seemed right for focusing fully on

501
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 2: her acting career. As an actor, Madonna, despite her more

502
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 2: than capable turns and desperately seeking Susan in a league

503
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 2: of their own alongside Rosanna Arquette and Tom Hanks, respectively,

504
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,719
Speaker 2: critics never considered Madonna a serious actor. Madonna wasn't supposed

505
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,480
Speaker 2: to act. She wasn't supposed to write books. She wasn't

506
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 2: supposed to push boundaries on film. She was supposed to

507
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 2: make records and videos, to show off her belly above

508
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 2: a boy toy belt, buckle and tour and make the

509
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 2: power players in the music industry more and more money.

510
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 2: Every time she got a creative itch to scratch, so

511
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 2: long as it was the right hitch, she was supposed

512
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 2: to inspire critics to write lofty, over intellectualized reviews and

513
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 2: long form think pieces dissecting the motive and meaning behind

514
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 2: her lyrics and her evolving image. She wasn't supposed to

515
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 2: make movies. Look what happened to Elvis singles, records, tours.

516
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 2: That's where it was at. Everything else was just noise overexposure.

517
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 2: But Madonna would not be put in a box. She

518
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 2: knew she had the goods for the screen, and she

519
00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 2: wasn't going to let self important critics or the showbized patriot,

520
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 2: bacle power, structured dictator, creative station. The reviews for a

521
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 2: Body of Evidence, the nineteen ninety three crime drama Madonna

522
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 2: starred in alongside Willem Dafoe, were vicious. To follow it up,

523
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 2: Madonna chose to go deeper, darker, agreeing to co produce

524
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 2: and star in notoriously tough and controversial director Able Ferrara's

525
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 2: dangerous game opposite Harvey Kaitel. The story tracks a famously

526
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 2: uncompromising director played by Kitel, who must cast a commercial

527
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 2: starlet played by Madonna in order to get his film financed.

528
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 2: Meta enough for you, Yet it gets better. There was

529
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 2: one more turn of the screw the film inside. The

530
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,480
Speaker 2: film's lead is played by James Russo, a real life

531
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 2: good friend of Madonna's ex husband Sean Penn. The project

532
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 2: with Ferrara, Kitel and Russo was a snake pit of masculinity,

533
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 2: the production an underground dogfight that Madonna pushed herself into

534
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 2: the middle of to answer her critics, and the results

535
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 2: electric thrilling transcendent. As a director, Abel Ferrara believed in

536
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,400
Speaker 2: breaking down as actors, berating them on set, forcing them

537
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 2: through take after take to act in mentally and physically

538
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 2: challenging situations, humiliating them when necessary, all in an effort

539
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 2: to strip the actors at any contrived stage artifice and

540
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 2: to hopefully bring raw.

541
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: Emotion to the performances.

542
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,400
Speaker 2: The idea was that once they had been so beaten down,

543
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 2: they forget they were actually acting. Ferrara's method was one

544
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 2: that Harvey Kytel and James Russo bought into wholeheartedly. Nothing

545
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 2: was out of bounds. Improvised lines thrown out to push

546
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 2: the actors, mainly the female lead on the set, the

547
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:40,719
Speaker 2: only one on set, by the way, who was an

548
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 2: actual A list celebrity Madonna, were meant to not only sting,

549
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 2: but to break her. Russo's character calls her a cunt.

550
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,040
Speaker 2: He goes on to say she's a fucking horn, she

551
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 2: can't act. Kitel calls her a commercial piece of shit.

552
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 2: Those last two daggers were meant to cut deep, given

553
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,120
Speaker 2: that they were essentially more concise, more profane version, and

554
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 2: so the criticism that the press had been hurling at

555
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 2: Madonna on a regular basis, the situation was.

556
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 1: Beyond intense horrific.

557
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 2: In some ways, the line between art and real life

558
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 2: was being obliterated. Madonna grew paranoid, anxious, tense, insecure. Violence

559
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 2: was imbued into the nature of every shoot. Volatility was

560
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 2: heavy in each direction. The insults from Kitel, Russo, Ferrara continued,

561
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,479
Speaker 2: and this was not what Madonna had signed up for.

562
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 2: The attacks would not let up. She felt humiliated. The

563
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 2: shame that feeling was familiar, reminded her of something she

564
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 2: did not want to be reminded of She could taste

565
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,440
Speaker 2: the fear in her mouth, the adrenaline. She felt violated, scared,

566
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 2: She questioned herself. She blamed herself. She tried to play

567
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 2: it cool, pull the act off, but it was too much,

568
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 2: too intense, and she was afraid, afraid that her worst

569
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 2: nightmare was happening all over again. The assailant kicked the

570
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,359
Speaker 2: door open. It happened so fast that she didn't have

571
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 2: time to react. Take your clothes off, he shouted. She

572
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 2: stood stunned. He forced her to the ground. Her body

573
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 2: was so stiff that he couldn't make it happen, even forcibly,

574
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 2: he couldn't get it in, so he lost.

575
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 1: It, and the insults continued.

576
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 2: He called her a disgusting lesbian, a stupid dyke, a

577
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 2: pathetic piece of shit, and claimed that if he couldn't

578
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 2: get it in her pussy, he was going to make

579
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:27,720
Speaker 2: her suck it. But when it was over, she remembered

580
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 2: the choking feeling, gagging on it, and then being dragged

581
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 2: over to the side of the roof by her hair,

582
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:35,839
Speaker 2: and the feeling of the knife against her throat. She

583
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 2: heard the rapist say that he didn't know if he

584
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 2: should slit her throat or push her off the building.

585
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 2: That's what Madonna's character said, anyway. That's how she detailed

586
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 2: her rape to Harvey kai Tell's character in the film

587
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 2: and in real life on set, answering her co stars

588
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 2: and director's off screen abuse and creative taunting by digging

589
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,479
Speaker 2: deep into her past, into her own real life rape,

590
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 2: detailing the most traumatic event of her life, pushing herself

591
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 2: deeper and deeper to deliver a torti force of an

592
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 2: acting performance. That is the best reason to revisit the

593
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 2: movie today. Only a year later, Quentin Tarantino would unveil

594
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 2: pulp Fiction and eat Able four Hours Lunch as Hollywood's

595
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 2: go to celluloid provocateur. But the boys club running the

596
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 2: set of Dangerous Game thought they were truly cutting edge

597
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 2: badasses and blame Madonna for.

598
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:28,720
Speaker 1: The movie not working, and they were wrong.

599
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: Even mainstream gatekeepers Ciskel and Ebert and their two thumbs

600
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,240
Speaker 2: down review called out the movie's blatant misogyny against Madonna.

601
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 2: It wasn't subtle a film about a film by a

602
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 2: provocative director, made by a provocative director, where the story

603
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,959
Speaker 2: dead ends into all the men calling the female lead,

604
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 2: a bad actress, a female lead played by the heavily

605
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:53,760
Speaker 2: criticized Madonna, insulting her on and off screen as harshly

606
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:55,640
Speaker 2: as possible, just to see.

607
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: If they could break her. Most people would have buckled

608
00:36:58,560 --> 00:36:59,320
Speaker 1: in the situation.

609
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 2: Broke Madonna, dug in, she pushed, she triumphed, She lived

610
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 2: to tell. Dangerous game didn't work as a movie when

611
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 2: it came out, but twenty six years later it holds

612
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 2: up in another way as an accidental documentary about how

613
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 2: Madonna is an unbreakable force of nature throughout the entirety

614
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 2: of her career. Men thought they could ConTroll her. Rapists,

615
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 2: record producers, a list, movie star boyfriends, directors drunk on

616
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 2: their own testosterone, and especially the critics. But there is

617
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 2: no controlling a true artist, especially one as true blue

618
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 2: as Madonna. Underestimate Madonna and you invite your own disgrace.

619
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created

620
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 2: by Yours Truly and is produced partnership with Double Elvis.

621
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 2: Credits for this episode can be found on the show

622
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 2: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as

623
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,359
Speaker 2: a Disgraceland All Access member. Thank you for supporting the show.

624
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 2: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become

625
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 2: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com

626
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,839
Speaker 2: slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgracelan

627
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Speaker 2: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode

628
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Speaker 2: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and

629
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 2: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com

630
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 2: slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and

631
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod

632
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 2: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod,

633
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 2: rock a Rolla, He's ann