Madonna Talks About Her Unique Time With George Harrison

Madonna discusses her unique time spent with George Harrison onset of the infamous yet commercially unsuccessful film, Shanghai Surprise (1986).

The singer starred in the movie alongside his then-newly-wedded husband, Sean Penn. Harrison produced the film through his HandMade Films and is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The movie was a flop and it became known to many due to its surrounding problems, most especially with how badly Penn behaved to paparazzi who wanted to take snapshots of the couple.

In the video presented below, Madonna explained how the movie turned out the way it is then: “There was a lot of tension on the set, you know, between the director and all the actors and it was just endless tension,” the pop star said. Madonna didn’t like the final editing of the movie since her major scenes were cut and her character was left to be portrayed as an “airhead girl.”

The interviewee then also pointed out the actions of the press in England. “When we got to England, it was like the 3^rd world war… because Sean and I make good press.” Madonna once settled the raucous down with a press conference together with George Harrison, but just like the rest of what happened in England, it was a total failure. Madonna said: “I really felt that George Harrison didn’t give me the chance to speak. I felt that he kept putting his foot in his mouth. He was very provocative in his statements; I feel like he was saying all the wrong things to calm people down, but I couldn’t really say that much.”

You can listen to the interview below.