Gird your loins, we have a big weekend coming up next week: the US is turning 250, Taylor Swift is (possibly) getting married, and Madonna is releasing her 15th studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor Part II. Madonna has been steadily building towards the July 3 release, including joining Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella before the duo dropped a single together, “Bring Your Love,” and premiering the Confessions II film at Tribeca. An edgy magazine cover profile was due next, and indeed was revealed this week. Interview Magazine Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg performed double duty as interviewer and stylist for the feature, and the results are excellent. Mel and Madge have an easy rapport, mutual respect, and obviously offbeat sensibility, making for an engaging read. Some highlights:

Specifics on what went down with Universal over her biopic: I was supposed to make a movie about my life. I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting. We had a falling out, me and Universal, regarding budget because I needed—I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget. You know what I mean? … They couldn’t get their heads around it. I found a way to make it for less money in Serbia, but I don’t think they were into the idea of—I don’t know. Maybe they just didn’t believe in me. One of their first reactions was, “We don’t believe you’d stay in Serbia more than four days.” And I said, “Did you read the script?” My whole life has been survival. I’m not going there for a holiday.

Then Netflix proposed a series instead: But anyway, I was in limbo when that fell apart, and then Netflix reached out to make a series. That was a whole other long process, because I couldn’t use the script I had with Universal unless I bought it from them for an extortionist’s price, even though I wrote it. Don’t ask. … That’s just the way it goes. I started trying to understand how making a series would work. It’s a very, very different process. You have to meet a lot of writers and find the right showrunner, and I couldn’t find one. This went on for another eight or nine months. I was like, “Good thing I have another job because I need to work, I need to create. I need to do what I was put on this earth to do.”

WWDBD? I was obsessed with David Bowie. I thought, what would David Bowie do? I’d ask myself that question all the time. And it would be like, he would give zero f–ks. … He always said stuff like, “Don’t pander to the peanut gallery,” or, “When you’re in deep water and your feet are barely touching the ground and you think you’re going to drown, you’re in the right place.” That made a big impression on me. Oh my god, there was no one like him, the way he channeled his femininity and his sense of style and his knowledge of art and spirituality. He was deeply musical and soulful, and genuinely didn’t care in the most intelligent way.

Handwriting for the win! I keep journals. My manager gets them for me all the time. This one says “The Queen.” I go through probably three a week. I love to write. With my hand. I write all my lyrics. … In the studio I have to write on paper and read from that paper when I’m singing. I scribble, make mistakes, rewrite, go to the next page. But I value those pages. They’re artifacts. The mind-hand connection is part of your soul in a way texting can never be. There’s no soul in texting.

[From Interview]

What’s that? Madonna singing the praises of the mind-hand-soul connection that can’t be found in typing or texting? Pardon me while I take a victory lap — y’all know I’ve been yapping about this for ages! Material Girl stole my material! And speaking of literal material, I sure hope Madge has held onto these notes and journals. You know, for the archives. Hey, maybe she has saved them and that’s what she used to write her biopic screenplay. (Though I do wonder if Queen Madge was using the royal “wrote,” since the first time we heard about Universal making this movie, the script was credited to Elyse Hollander.) At some point along the way Julia Garner was cast as Madonna; people are such fans of both women and want this to happen! Which it still may, as elsewhere in this article Madonna says that Netflix apparently did find the right writer, but she was too far into recording Confessions at the time. Pick it up next year, maybe?

Last thing: Madonna tells Mel that she’s disciplined about not spending too long on social media because “time is precious.” Pretty hilarious when you remember that she was sued three times by concertgoers during the Celebration Tour for starting the show hours late.

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