ARGENTINA: MADONNA CALLS A NEWS CONFERENCE AS CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO SURROUND FILMING OF HER MOVIE 'EVITA'

Record ID: 446567

  • Title: ARGENTINA: MADONNA CALLS A NEWS CONFERENCE AS CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO SURROUND FILMING OF HER MOVIE 'EVITA'
  • Date: 6th February 1996
  • Summary: STAR OF FILM ABOUT EVA PERON, POPSTAR MADONNA, FILM DIRECTOR ALAN PARKER, JONATHAN PRYCE AND ANTONIO BANDERAS ENTERING CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 21st February 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
  • Country: Argentina
  • Reuters ID: LVADG49NT9ZBSB4CFEIC0LU77AQ2
  • Story Text: Madonna, star of the film "Evita", fended off criticism on Tuesday (February 6) by those Argentinians who say she will cheapen the image of their heroine Eva Peron.

    She was in Buenos Aires, where the film is being made, with the film's director Alan Parker and fellow actors Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce.

    Controversy over the film rages in Argentina where some are fiercely opposed to raunchy rock star Madonna portraying the former first lady Eva (Evita) Peron.

    Director Alan Parker said there was no question of Eva Peron's image being cheapened by "Evita".

    "We are making a respectable, sensible and historically accurate film" he said.

    Madonna, the main focus of the controversy, said the negative comments had hurt her but that such criticism came from people who do not know what they are talking about.

    "I urge people people to wait until they have seen the movie" she added.

    Pryce said the very fact that they were filming in Argentina, rather than making the film in the United Kingdom, proof of their commitment. He emphasised it could have been made in Britain where the governing Conservative (Tory) party is the same as that of Margaret Thatcher who ordered soldiers to fight Argentinians during the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas conflict.

    Antonio Banderas, who plays the revolutionary Che Guevara, said that in the film his character would take a different role to that in the original musical. Che would comment on the rise of Eva Peron and not play scenes with her face-to-face, he said.

    The scenes in Argentina will take about six weeks to film.
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