ISSUE 100
gloves and a bracelet of four crosses to represent each one of her children, she gives us exactly what we want: Madonna. No pretense. No filter. No warm-and-fuzzy. In the interview, she talks about the challenges of being a strong woman in a man's world, teaching her children to be unique and how outsiders can relate to her new film.
What similarities do you see between Wallis and Evita?
What they have common is what many people have in common who are public figures, who become iconic and have some kind of historical impact, especially women in who strong women. People have a tendency to feel intimidated by the strength of these women, and in order to accept - actually, the word "accept" is wrong, because I don't think they're actually accepted. I think in order to deal with them, a lot of people who write history books, and humanity in general, has a tendency to diminish women or undermine their accomplishments or try to portray them as heretical or as someone with an evil possession of some kind of sorcery, or undermine their strength or intelligence, so I think they have those things in common. Now I'm not saying that Eva Peron is without flaws or that Wallis Simpson was this perfect holy human being, but I do think they were both dealt with in a very unfair way in the history books.
GC: Have you felt that way?
M: (Laughs, expecting the question) Well, yeah, sure. Yes, of course. I mean, I don't think it's just me. It's strong women in general.
M: No. It's just the nature of the universe. It's the nature of the world that we live in. We live in a patriarchal society and strong women have to...
GC: Challenge that?
M: No. They're held under a microscope and judged and measured in a different way. That's just the law of the universe. right now.
GC: The film is driven by a contemporary woman's view of this historical figure. Do you see anything in your story that may, or that you hope one day may, do the same for someone else?
M: The Duchess is really Wally's spiritual guide, so to speak, and even though she (the Duchess) came from a different era where women didn't have the same kind of choices and opportunities, we as women still are all raised on this fairytale idea that how many opportunities we have education-wise or job-wise, your knight in shining armor is going to arrive on his beautiful white stallion and sweep you off your feet and take you off into the twilight, and you're going to live happily ever after. This is something that we all have to deal with when we grow up. But one person isn't going to be all of those things to us; ultimately, we have to make our own happiness, and when we can own that and take responsibility for our own happiness, then we can find a mate for ourselves, or companion or significant other or whatever you want to call it. That's certainly what the Duchess imparts to Wally, and I hope that I can inspire other women to think that way with my own life and behavior.
GC: What's the thing that surprised you most about Wallis Simpson while doing your research?
M: The discoveries that Wally makes in her journey and her investigations were essentially mine. When I heard about the story matter no what a magnanimous, generous romantic gesture Edward VIII made toward Wallis Simpson - I thought the same thing that Wally says when she's looking in the mirror trying on the necklace: "What must it feel to be loved that much?"
As I started to unravel the story and read the letters and go on the journey that I went on to write the script, I realized that, in GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012 43