Smash Hits: So what have you been up to lately?

Madonna: I’ve just finished working on the movie A League Of Their Own, which I’m very excited about. I’ve also been working on material for my next record but that probably won’t be released for a couple of months.

Smash Hits: Are you planning any amazing tours and perhaps finally popping down to Australia along the way [hint hint]?

Madonna: Yes, absolutely. But right now I want to concentrate more on film. I’ve always wanted to become an actress – so I want to concentrate on film, the theatre and also dance.

Smash Hits: Is it true that you always regarded your singing career as a fluke?

Madonna: Yes, it’s true. When I came to New York City I never came with the intention of making it as a singer. The success from that took me by surprise. So I went off in that direction, but now I feel because I’ve had a certain amount of success I can go back and delve more into my original interests, in particular, film.

Smash Hits: How do you feel about the progress you’ve made as a film actress?

Madonna: It’s taken me a little longer to be accepted and respected in film. But nothing that’s worth being successful at happens overnight. Everyone’s always looking to knock you down when you’re on top and I’m no different. I’ve had my fair share of that. But I’ll be around a lot longer than most of those critics.

Smash Hits: You’ve accomplished so much already, but what’s your next goal?

Madonna: Making more movies. Lots and lots of them. I don’t simply want to appear in other people’s films, I want to do my own film projects. Next I plan on doing a picture on Frida Kahlo – she was a Mexican painter (M has filled her house with pictures painted by Ms Kahlo, incidentally). And I just bought the film rights to a book about Martha Graham (one of Madonna’s early dance instructors who died recently) I and I want to do a movie about her life, too. Also I’m going to make a new thriller called Body Of Evidence with Willem Dafoe in Oregon in April. That one will come out sometime before the year is over. I want to be the biggest movie star in the whole world [wicked laugh]. Nothing else will do, so watch out Hollywood!

Smash Hits: You come across as a very confident and ambitious woman. Are you consumed by ambition?

Madonna: No, I don’t think it consumes me, although in a sense, the Blond Ambition tour in In Bed With Madonna was very consuming and I had very little time for quiet moments or private moments. It was physically exhausting, but then I’m not on tour all of my life, so I can take a few months off and regroup.

Smash Hits: In that very movie, your old chum Warren Beatty says that you don’t like to live off-camera. Is that true?

Madonna: No, that’s not true. Warren was just getting fed up and mad about the camera always being on in my living room or dressing room every time he came over. He couldn’t handle it.

Smash Hits: Is it true that he asked to have his footage cut out of the film?

Madonna: Yes.

Smash Hits: What did you say?

Madonna: I told him no. He didn’t like that, but it was my film, not his.

Smash Hits: Because you keep dying your hair back to blond every so often (M is currently blond again. Well this week anyway! – Ed.) a lot of people think you have a preoccupation and fascination with Marilyn Monroe. Do you think that’s true?

Madonna: I don’t think I’m like Marilyn Monroe in a lot of ways. The main thing that we have in common is that we bleach our hair. She’s a ’sex symbol’ and a ’sex goddess’ and I can relate to that in terms of how many people like to see me. I kind of like to take that imagery and what everybody’s preconceived notions of what a sex goddess is supposed to be and turn it all around. Throw it back in your face and say, ‘Yes, I can be this sex symbol, but I don’t have to be a victim, and I don’t have to be fragile’.

Smash Hits: Marilyn Monroe also died a rather horrible death from drugs and you’ve certainly got no plans for that, we hope.

Madonna: I refuse to placate people and be victimized. I always felt Marilyn Monroe drank and popped pills to escape reality and the problems in her life. I’m not like that at all. I don’t have an addictive personality. I love my life and what I do.

© SMASH HITS