Pugh’s that girl?15
Brit Florence in battle with Ozark star to play Madonna
QUEEN of pop Madonna is Desperately Seeking the “perfect” actress to play her on screen… and English actress Florence Pugh could be the one.
The Little Women actress, 25, is said to be neck and neck with Ozark’s Julia Garner, 26, in the race to win the role.
Madonna, 62, is co-writing the much-anticipated biopic and will also direct it. And as for the leading role, fans can’t wait for her to decide Who’s That Girl.
An insider told the Sunday Mirror: “Realistically, there are only a couple of people in town who could pull this role off.
“The bosses who are helping put the movie together want
Florence and nobody doubts that she could be amazing.
“On the other hand, fans and the press have already weighed in and, from that perspective,
Julia is their frontrunner because she is such a dead ringer for early-career Madonna.
“Still, there are serious politics and scheduling issues in the way of Julia landing the part.
PRESSURE
“The final decision will be
Madonna’s alone, since she’s directing and it’s her story.
“She’s really only got one shot to get this right. Like with Elton
John’s Rocketman, there isn’t room for error. She’s putting herself under serious pressure to find the perfect person.”
Madonna is penning the script with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.
Julia was touted for the lead role after her Emmy-winning success in Netflix crime drama
Ozark. She also starred in movie
The Assistant.
But Madonna also connected with Oscar nominee Florence after fans pointed out the resemblance between her and the pop queen when she was young.
Speaking about the biopic,
Madonna has said: “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer… a human being trying to make her way in this world. The focus of this film will always be music.
“Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the rollercoaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”
Madonna has directed two films – the 2008 drama Filth and Wisdom and period biopic W.E. in 2011. She has also acted in Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy and Evita.
Other musical biopics are on the way. A new film about Whitney Houston – titled I Wanna Dance With Somebody
– is in the pipeline while Stardust, starring Johnny Flynn, will focus on the early years of David Bowie’s career.
HALLE Berry is back in the mix at this year’s Oscars… but she’s in no mood for celebrations.
She plays a washed-up cage fighter in Bruised – and also directs the movie.
But any plaudits cannot hide the pain Halle feels that she remains the only black woman ever to pick up the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.
When she won the award in 2002 for her stunning performance in Monster’s Ball, it was hailed as a defining moment for Hollywood as much as it was for her.
Fighting back tears she told Tinseltown’s elite at the time: “This moment is so much bigger than me. This award is for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”
Almost 20 years on, Halle, 54, is being touted again as a possible contender for this year’s Academy Awards in April.
But it’s not how she hoped things would pan out.
REFLECTIVE
She says: “The heartbreak I have is because I really thought that night meant that very soon after that, other women of colour, black women, would stand beside me.
“Now it’s been 20 years and no one has, and so every time Oscar time comes around, I get very reflective and I think, ‘Well maybe this year, maybe this year’.
“It has become heartbreaking that no one else has stood there.
“Arguably there could have been other women who deserve to have been there that haven’t been there and I would have hoped that in 20 years, there would have been others that would be beside me.
“That moment mattered because so many people have come up to me over the years and told me how that moment shifted their thinking about what they could achieve, what they aspire to do or what they believed they could do – that they were touched by that moment. That is the value that I know is real.”
Since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929, 92 white stars have won the Best Leading Actress gong.
Halle, a Bond girl in 2002 movie Die Another Day, is the only black actress to scoop the top award – despite 12 others being nominated.
Eight black stars have won Best Supporting Actress over the years. But Hollywood is haunted by decades of racial and sexual inequality. Halle fears cam-paigns such as #Oscarssowhite appear to have brought little change.
Ironically, her new role in Bruised was initially written for a
So many have come up to me and said my Oscar win mattered HALLE BERRY ON HER BEST ACTRESS GONG
25-year-old white Irish girl – but Halle convinced producers to give her the part of a fighter on the comeback trail. She says: “I knew ‘as written’ the role could not be me. But what I loved was it was a classic fight film.
“People love to root for the underdog.
“I loved the fracture and brokenness of this character and I love to see a film about redemption.
“I want to see the human spirit soar, to see someone