Popstar Icon Madonna is Writing the Story of Her Life
- After losing her mom to breast cancer at age 5, Madonna gained resilience
- She dedicated her 1989 album, Like a Prayer, to her mother
- Madonna is co-writing with Diablo Cody the story of her life, and she’s sitting the the director’s chair, too
She's the woman who truly needs no introduction. But as a young girl growing up in Michigan, she was a kid who had just lost her mom, learning to navigate life without her rock.
Read MoreHow Her Mother's Death Changed Her
Her mom also named Madonna died in December 1963. And the death changed 5-year-old Madonna forever. The pop star shared in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone, "If she were alive, I would be someone else. I would be a completely different person." Her song "Promise to Try" is about letting go, and trying not to shape an image of her mother into something she wasn't. "It's about yearning to have her in my life but also about trying to accept the fact that she's not." The album the song appeared on, Like a Prayer, was dedicated to her mother. Related: Breast Cancer Survivor Sheryl Crow Shares Life-Saving Message About Mammograms: "I Am Making a Personal Request"62-year-old Madonna has six children of her own: Lourdes, Rocco, David, Mercy James, and twins Esther and Stella.
Building Resilience After Loss
Madonna's New York City origin story is the stuff of legend; it's the kind of story that feeds the fire of every young person looking to make a big mark on the world. As the lore goes, she arrived in New York in 1978 with a mere $35 in her pocket, and a pair of ballet shows. (Madonna was a trained dancer, and that was her initial career aspiration.)
What may have seemed unthinkably overwhelming coming alone to one of the biggest cities in the world with barely any money and scraping by never deterred Madonna from her dreams. In her early days in New York, she recalled her mother's strength in the face of her breast cancer battle. And it gave her drive and resilience; Madonna has called the gift an "incredible lesson."
Sharing Her Story in a New Biopic
Diablo Cody and Madonna are two people you could easily pair together. Both are outspoken, funny, bold, and quirky, and have a knack for making hits. Cody is the hit-making screenwriter behind films like Juno and Young Adult. And now, she's penning the soon-to-be-told Madonna biopic, along with the Material Girl herself. The two are co-writing the script on this untitled film.
In the story of her life, Cody and Madonna will portray the singer's earlier losses and hardships. The breast cancer diagnosis of her mother shaped Madonna in a profound way, but Madonna has emphasized that music will be the film's focus.
"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 roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision," Madonna said in a statement about the film.
Madonna will be doubly expressing herself with this biopic she's not only a scriptwriter on the film, but she's sitting in the director's chair, too. This will be the third film she has directed. Variety has called it an "unprecedented move" to write and direct one's own biopic. But, then again, when has Madonna ever opted for the precedented move?
Friend of Madonna, Elton John, was a producer on his biopic, Rocketman, last year, but did not have a hand in writing or directing. He commissioned a script, and after a years-long search, eventually found a director Dexter Fletcher.
In true Madonna form, the singer opted to be an especially active participant in crafting her story.
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