Madonna shared with Interview magazine what it has been like to co-write and direct the upcoming film “W.E.”. She chats about the writing process and the realization that she’d need a big budget for the costumes.

She says that making a movie is MUCH more stressful than making music:

Every other day, it’s like, ‘What am I doing? This is insane. I could be off gardening right now. This is too stressful. Who do I think I am? Why am I putting myself through all of this punishment?’ That’s what it feels like-for me, anyway.”

She is co-writing the movie with Alek Keshishian and has to balance her writing with her family obligations.

“I tend to write during the day so I can see my children at night. But if my kids aren’t with me and I have a chunk of time when I’m a single woman living in my house for a miraculous week, I will get to write at different hours,”

She shares a little about the movie’s plot:

“Everyone thinks I’m making [a movie] that’s supposed to be a musical about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. I don’t know why that got in the newspapers. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor are in the movie, but it’s not going to be about them. It’s really about this other woman’s journey, and the duchess is kind of her spiritual guide,” she explained. “It’s set mostly in pre-World War II England-like, 1936 to 1937 –and then in New York in 1998. It goes back and forth in time. I use the Sotheby’s auction in 1998 of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s estate as a device to flash backward from.”

Madonna says that she realized their budget was in trouble when she grasped just how “high end” the costumes would need to be:

“I didn’t realize it when we were writing the script, but once I started casting and planning and working with my production designer, I went, ‘Oh, f***. I wrote a script about a bunch of rich people. That’s going to be great for the budget,” she told the mag. “The duchess has, like, 80 costume changes. She was dressed by Balenciaga and Christian Dior and Vionnet and Schiaparelli… It’ll be a combination of real vintage pieces, others we’ll get remade based on patterns that have been dragged out of the archives, and then new stuff we’ll make. Next time, I’m writing a movie about one person in one place who has no wardrobe.”

I’m sure if Madonna gets some input on the wardrobe, it’ll be really well-done. I’m pretty anxious to see how this turns out – it’s scheduled to start shooting this summer. I wonder if ex-husband, director Guy Ritchie, gave her any tips or advice?

Photos by WENN