Julia Garner Still Hopeful for Madonna Biopic

Julia Garner isn’t just shrugging off the Madonna biopic delays. Originally announced way back in 2020, the Madonna biopic hit turbulence in early 2023 when Madonna prioritized her Celebration world tour. However, Garner, who is busy doing a press tour for Fantastic Four: First Steps, is confident the project will still happen.  

In an appearance on the SmartLess podcast with hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, Garner said about the Universal Pictures project (via Billboard), “Yeah, that’s supposed to still happen,” without giving any details about the biopic.  

She added, “Oh my God! I was such a fan of Madonna’s. I grew up listening to Madonna. It just came about. I knew that they were doing a project, making a movie about it, and then I went out to audition.” According to her, doing the biopic was “another thing that I kind of just wanted to see if I could do.”  

The Inventing Anna actress also shared that she had to learn how to dance and show off her moves to Madonna herself: “And convince her that I can dance, basically, and sing with her.”  

When host Bateman asked him about that nerve-wracking situation, Garner responded with a WWMD (what would Madonna do?) mindset. She said, “Which is like, convince you that she deserves to be in this room, and I owned it. I was kind of like, ‘You can take it or leave it. But if you leave it, if I leave, then that’s on you. If you take it, great.’”  

Garner confirmed that the project is “still brewing” and that anything great “takes a long time.”   

Madonna also appeared to tease that the project is back on after posting a since-deleted photo of herself sitting at a typewriter working on a screenplay for Who’s That Girl. However, the "Like a Virgin" songstress seemed to reconsider and is thinking of doing a TV series instead, saying that some producers and agents told her that a movie wouldn’t be enough to tell her whole story.