The groundbreaking pop documentarys participants look back, 30 years later.
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(Time will tell whetherPink,Nicki Minaj,Rihanna, orAlicia Keyscan do any better.)
Maybe thats becauseTruth or Darewasnt initially designed to be so personal.
What came next was less a celebrity-branding ploy than an organic peek behind the Blond Ambition Tours curtain.
The movie isnt pure cinema verite, explains Keshishian, who scripted Madonnas pensive narration.
Its kind of this odd hybrid.
As a result, people didnt know what to do withTruth or Dareother than gawk and boy did they.
Arriving during Madonnas imperial phase, the movie further heightened her notoriety.
UntilFahrenheit 9/11in 2004, it was the highest-grossing documentary in history.
(Taylor Swift cares about politics after all!
The Jonas Brothers arent just Disney Channel twerps!)
ButTruth or Darehad less to prove.
Jean Paul Gaultier designed the wardrobe, including the distinguishedcone bra.
In 2017,Rolling Stonecalled Blond Ambition one of the50 best toursof the last 50 years.
I had directed Michael Jacksons first tour.
But Madonna was different.
Bette Midler and David Bowie dabbled in it, but not to the extent we did.
I put it on toothpick by toothpick.
I would come with ideas: Do you like these?
And that became such an iconic look.
Paterson:Disney gave us a soundstage [for rehearsals] on the lot in Burbank.
He was a nice guy, didnt say too much.
I had her leaning against the piano in silhouette.
He said, I love it, but what about if you put heronthe piano?
We both looked at each other and said, Sounds good.
I remember saying to myself,Shes never going to get away with this.
Its not going to work, and then continuing to defend her point of view.
She did get away with it, I think, because she wasnt afraid.
We absolutely thought they were going to arrest her [in Toronto].
She had the balls to say, Im not changing it, I dont care.
Backstage documentaries, however, werent.
Bob DylansDont Look Back also captured in 16mm black-and-white was a rare exception.
But its natural evolution allowed for a spontaneity that cant be achieved through premeditation.
What some of the media mistook for an elaborate calculation was partly a fluke.
When the movie opened, the idea of Madonna as matriarch became its oft-repeated thesis.
(My little babies are feeling fragile, she says at one point.)
Originally I came on just to direct an HBO special with a little bit of backstage stuff.
It was just meant to be B-roll.
Everything that came after was a surprise.
They had talked aboutDavid Fincherdoing the HBO show.
Gair:It wasnt until the very last minute that we were told it would be filmed.
Kevin Stea, dancer:When we got to Japan, there were cameras here and there.
I thought it was abouther.
In some ways, the best show youre going to see is onstage, in front of the curtain.
Im old-fashioned in feeling protective and wanting everyone to see the best of Madonna.
I worried that it might not have been in her best interest to show the underbelly of the tour.
Keshishian:In Japan, I started interviewing the dancers in bed.
That was the only way I could double-check they showed up.
I was just curious about who these guys were.
Who are these people who have suddenly landed in Madonnas world?
There was a reason we all wanted to be performers and wanted to be loved.
Theres so much more that we talked about and shared that didnt actually end up inTruth or Dare.
That was part of our religion.
The cast of characters revealed themselves.
Keshishian:While I was interviewing them, thats when the cog started working in my brain.
I was like,Wait a second.
These are all amazing kids.
The movie is whats happening offstage with you as the maternal figure to this group of Felliniesque characters.
So I showed her the interviews I had done, and she was fascinated by it.
The audience already got a chance to see my performance on the stage.
What they never get to see is life behind the scenes.
Whats remarkable about Madonna is that she didnt need permission from other people to decide what to do.
But I was wrong about the movie.
The makeup is off and all the gloves are off, and its the real real.
Roewe:The word I would use is argue.
He wouldnt do just what she told him to do.
It was a very strong creative dynamic.
Through her reps, Madonna also declined to be interviewed.
Warren Beatty did not respond to requests for comment.)
Wilborn:The family dynamic thats really something she created.
That was a narrative and a positioning for her, and I understand it.
It put her in a different power place than everybody else.
And while I say that, I want to be clear: It was not a negative.
It was really like,Holy shit, is she really going that far and doing all that?
Is she really that free?
This is off the chain.
I dont know that any of us had ever had a boss who exposed themselves so rawly and playfully.
Im grateful and thankful that it did bring us together.
Im glad that was in the movie so people can see what people go through.
The tour taught me so much.
On the set of Vogue, I saw two guys kiss for the first time.
Before the tour started, I was homophobic.
I wasnt all with it.
Learning from all the guys what their lives were like when they were young was just mind-blowing.
If it wasnt for Madonna and that tour, I would never have got that experience.
I dont know that the film presented that much of that particular component, which I remember very well.
Rehearsing two shows a day in the weeks leading up to it was just unfathomable.
Madonna understood her gravitational pull within the broader pop-culture universe and behaved without much humility.
In fact, she seemed to take pride and still does in her acidic wit.
Madonna treated us like simpletons,Almodovar later said.
And she said, Why would I want you in it?
Stea:Warren was so over us.
He was like, Im at a different point in my life.
He was just rolling his eyes whenever we were invited along with her to places.
I thought it was so sweet that she would take us everywhere.
We went over to Warrens house to celebrate his birthday.
I could tell on his face: Well, this is what its come to.
Haris:I find him to be one of the smartest human beings, and kind.
I love him because he was older.
It was nice to have adult conversations.
I felt like I was around a bunch of kids.
Rosenberg:I thought,What a guy for stepping into that kind of world.
He adored Madonna and he treated her really well.
What is the line from Express Yourself?
Long-stem roses are the way to your heart, but he needs to start with your head.
What a great line that is.
I would say Warren was very good with the rosesandthe brain connection.
Paterson:He and Jack Nicholson were such players at that time.
I kind of look at it like she was calling the shots.
He said, Im not exposing myself like that.
Roewe:You could have made a short film just on the footage of Warren Beatty in her apartment.
We rolled the cameras for 40 minutes.
Brown:My first cut of that was indulgently long.
I showed that to Alek and Madonna, and they were like, Yeah, thats enough of that.
Keshishian:His lawyers were like, Warren hasnt agreed to be in this.
Hed like to see the film.
Stea:New Kids on the Block threw a party for us in New York.
There was a party in Paris where Lenny Kravitz and Sinead OConnor came through.
I just went back there because I was asked to go back.
She just said it very simply.
Harvey wasnt yet a top-line power broker, giving Madonna the upper hand.
Internationally, the documentary was titledIn Bed With Madonnain case the concept of truth or dare?
Brown:We were at a test screening of the film.
I dont care what your point of view is.
I never want to hear it.
Who the hell are you to tell me what kind of film I should be doing?
This is mine and Aleks.
Shut up and I dont ever want to hear another one of your ideas about it.
Even in public, Madonna was like, Get away from me, you smell like a fucking ashtray.
In that respect, Madonna was already more powerful than Harvey.
Rosenberg:I think he was a little afraid of her, since hes into having power over women.
He understood he was not in a position to give her shit.
Nothing has changed.)
She was doing this stuff when it was not popular, and she didnt give a fuck.
I was really pleased that it showed the quiet moments of hers.
A lot of the press almost looked at those quiet moments like they were fake.
But I saw a lot more of that than I saw of the big on-camera Madonna.
It was so instinctive and natural to her.
Rosenberg:Thats kind of a fallacy that people have.
I dont feel that Madonna had a master plan about how to manipulate the media.
She did her thing and she knew she was gonna take shit for it.
But even if Iamacting, theres a truth in my acting.
Its like when you go into a psychiatrists office and you dont really tell them what you did.
You lie, but even the lie youve chosen to tell is revealing.
Brown:One of the things that knocked me out is that party they do in France.
Shes staying in this great hotel where she has a party for everybody at the end of the tour.
Finally she kicks everybody out to go to bed, and she goes around her suite and cleans up.
That was one of the last things shot, and I thought,Thats the beginning of the movie.
Whatever you might think you know about Madonna, you probably dont know her at all.
Who would have thought that Madonna would clean up her own suite after throwing a party?
you’ve got the option to see shes tired and a little tipsy.
It says a lot.
Keshishian:There were a few moments toward the end where Harvey wanted 15 minutes from the film.
I was like, Im not cutting 15 minutes.
He said, Look, I just showed the film to Jeffrey Katzenbeng.
He loves it, but he thinks it needs to be 15 minutes shorter.
I go, Well, thats why we didnt sell it to Jeffrey Katzenberg.
This is a movie, Harvey.
This is her life.
If I get rid of 15 minutes, it changes your takeaway of her.
The Dancers Lawsuit
Truth or Dareopened on May 10, 1991.
Five days later, it had aflashy midnight screeningat the Cannes Film Festival.
The whole ordeal became media gossip.They settled out of court in 1994.
(Gabriel Trupin, whose makeout moment remained intact, died of AIDS in 1995.)
Looking back at it now, I dont know that she ever knew it was in my contract.
Crumes:I looked at it like I had to protect myself.
I didnt have a contract for [the film].
There are a lot of die-hard Madonna fans that are mad about the fact that we didnt get paid.
It was so much of a vulnerable movie, and it showed every weakness and strength of everyone.
Gabriels family didnt know he was gay.
We should have all gotten paid because its still making money.
The choice I made to do the lawsuit was literally because I said, What would she do?
She would fight for herself.
She kept telling me, Dont let people take advantage of you.
My agents should have been the ones to sue, not me.
I think I said to her, You know what you did, and I dont think its fair.
I didnt get paid for this.
Money is no problem for her.
Wilborn:I was not a part of it.
Just because you’re free to doesnt mean you should.
Crumes:Its water under the bridge for me.
No matter what, Im always going to still love her.
Elvis, to me, dont have nothing on Madonna and Michael Jackson.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce dont have nothing on Madonna and Michael Jackson.
Nobody will ever be better than both of them.
I have nothing but love for her, and I wish one day Ill get to see her again.
In addition to a more intimate Madonna, audiences got to see queer men in their element.
Despite its impact,Truth or Daredidnt prompt an instant pop-doc wave.
Keshishian:When we were in Cannes, I met Sean Penn for the first time.
You really captured her.
I said, Yeah, I am.
Youve written Madonna off and youre wrong about her.
He said, Yeah, yeah, maybe.
And then next I hear, theyre meeting up in Chicago.
Oh, you put her down, but now shes your girl, right?
Later, Spike said, Yeah, Madonnas cool, shes all right.
Julie Brown, comedian:I had a deal to do a special with Showtime.
At first I pitched them something about me trying to get some kind of concert going.
Ive always thought performers are hilarious, especially the narcissistic ones.
I just made it up at the time.
It may have been Dom.
Roewe:In a sense, Madonna was showing herself to be vulnerable and to be made fun of.
Thats one of the things that gave it credibility.
It wasnt, Im going to tell you the Madonna story.
Stea:Aleks particular vision really paid tribute to gay culture.
I remember everyone being really focused on the fact that Madonna drank Evian water.
A detail like that could make more of an impression on audiences because it was so personal and specific.
It gives emphasis to her transfiguration from private citizen to public icon.
Everyones making their quote-unquoteTruth or Dare, but none of it has that impact.
By the way, she asked me to do aTruth or Dare 2many years ago.
She was like, No, I dont want to make that bang out of documentary anyway.
I want people to see the serious work Im doing forMalawiand my work in Kabbalah.
I remember saying to her, The problem is, thats not a movie thats not drama.
Its just an essay.
Madonna (Entertainment Weekly, 2015):Im afraid to watch it.
I just think Im a horrible brat, thats what Im afraid of.
She sees a role model.
To be around a woman like Madonna was just like, Yes!
We felt taken care of.
Keshishian:As Warren Beatty said, You dont do this.
This is not how you create stardom.
Thats whyTruth or Dareworked.
No other star had done that yet.
OnceTruth or Daredid it, you kind of cant do it again.
Its kind of unfair to expect other people to.
