Susan Seidelman about Madonna and Susan

As previously reported on MadonnaTribe’s News page, director Susan Seidelman attended a screening of her “Smithereens” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” movies last Friday at 92YTribeca in New York City.

Our friend Matthew Rettenmund attended the event and posted reports and videos – including bran new quotes from Susan on working with Madonna – at his BoyCulture blog. Here are some bits (and tidbits).

The character of Susan was originally “a backpacker/hippie type – she was someone who’d just come back from Guatemala,” Seidelman remembers. “It was a transitional time between punk and New Wave. [I was interested in] getting some of that punk/New Wave texture into the film. Certainly that was part of the reason Madonna was ultimately cast.”

Matt asked her how she’d pulled such a strong performance out of Madonna, considering the fact that Madonna has since been terrible in some roles and pretty good in others – in short, anything but a sure thing. Seidelman didn’t want to say what she thought of Madonna’s performances in other movies (“good in some, not as good in others”) but did make the strong point that Madonna was acting in Desperately Seeking Susan, not merely “playing herself.” She said it’s impossible to hit marks and recite lines and do all that is required in making a movie and to simply play one’s self.

Check out more at BoyCulture. Thanks to Matt.