Because there is no denying that Madonna is in some way connected to every other famous person, whenever a celebrity dies, it’s usually pretty easy to find an image of Madonna and that person posing together. Alas, there seems to be no such image of Madonna and David Lynch, even though they were connected by far less than six degrees. After all, Madonna was linked to working with Lynch’s eldest daughter, Jennifer, back in 1990. Specifically, for a project that was then being called Boxing Hanna. As any cinephile/Lynch fan knows by now, however, that became Boxing Helena—starring not Madonna, but Sherilynn Fenn (another David Lynch regular).
Even though Madonna was initially “fully on board” to do the project, it seemed her love for the avant-garde couldn’t find enough of a mainstream hook in Boxing Helena to go through with it. However, as indicated by a November 4, 1990 article in the Los Angeles Times that stated, “Madonna and Jennifer Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter, are hatching plans to film an Eating Raoul-type murder tale called Boxing Hanna,” M was initially eager about the prospect of such an “out there” script. For, short of working with David Lynch himself, Jennifer would have been the “second-best” bet (even though Madonna famously urged, “Don’t go for second best, baby” on “Express Yourself”). The LA Times article went on to declare, “A publicist for Madonna confirms that the singer-actress is committed to the project, which could begin filming early next year. In the story, the title character is a murder victim whose body parts get boxed. Sounds like Jennifer Lynch inherited her father’s sense of humor.” Though, unfortunately, not his devoted cult following as a result of that “sense of humor.”
What’s more, as soon as December of the same year, Madonna was already reported to have dropped out of the project, leaving Kim Basinger as the primary actress in the running for the starring role (for in the 90s, Madonna always seemed to be competing with other archetypal “bad girl” blondes like Michelle Pfeiffer and Sharon Stone). Just five months after accepting the part, Basinger, too, decided to back out. Which cost her a pretty penny when things got litigious thanks to the film’s producer, Carl Mazzocone. One supposes it was fortunate for Madonna that the i’s and t’s were never dotted and crossed on a contract for her involvement in the film, which was slated to go into production in January of 1991, just after she folded.
J. Lynch remarked of both blondes abandoning ship that they “couldn’t complete the process of making the picture because they hadn’t done enough investigating of the little girls inside themselves.” One must pause here to note that no one is more obsessed with investigating “the little girl inside herself” than Madonna, especially during this period of her life (see: Truth or Dare, her 1991 Rolling Stone interview with Carrie Fisher, etc.). Lynch then added, “Their bravery is not to be lessened, but perhaps they had not anticipated how difficult making this movie would be.” Or perhaps Madonna anticipated exactly how difficult it would be, especially while she was just coming off an exhausting international tour (Blond Ambition) and wrapping up post-production for her no holds barred rockumentary, Truth or Dare.
To boot, Madonna’s film destiny instead seemed to be the one-two “stinker” punch of Uli Edel’s Body of Evidence and Abel Ferrara’s Dangerous Game, with both films released the same year as Boxing Helena. Indeed, Madonna’s alternate film choices didn’t fare much better, critic and audience reception-wise, than Jennifer Lynch’s foray into directing for the first time. Perhaps one might call that “karma” (namely, those who have never been open to the idea of Madonna being an actress—daring to veer from her “pop star” lane, despite the fact that many other women have been “allowed” to [e.g., Cher and Lady Gaga]) as a result of Madonna’s decision to so abruptly pump the breaks on her enthusiasm for a nepo baby project.
And maybe David Lynch didn’t forget about it as quickly as his daughter did. Especially not after the additional slight of Madonna so soon after documenting herself canoodling in the buff with Lynch’s fresh ex, Isabella Rossellini (specifically, the Steven Meisel-shot image from the Sex book is of Rossellini wearing a men’s coat that she wraps around a [presumably] naked Madonna). Yet another far-less-than-six-degrees-of-separation connection to the auteur.
So maybe, all in all, David Lynch was dead-set on not engaging with her after this back-to-back affront in the early 90s. Even though Rossellini had no issue crossing paths with her again at various “hobnobbing events.” Nor did she have any issue (eventually) saying how she really felt about the Sex book despite her participation in it: “I told Madonna and Steven the book is beautiful and the photos are beautiful but I don’t think she went deep enough… I understand she may have wanted to say, ‘Sex has many facets and I am exploring them all.’ In that, I appreciated her effort. But somehow the book missed something.” What she meant, of course, is that, in her opinion, the book had no “soul” (bell hooks was of the same mind about most of Madonna’s work). Not like the work of her erstwhile boyfriend, Lynch.
And perhaps Lynch felt the same way about Madonna (without any input from Rossellini necessary) and that’s why they never crossed paths or worked together (not even in the form of a fake heated interview à la Lynch and Cher) as the rest of the 1990s and beyond progressed. Even so, it certainly seemed that casting decisions related to Boxing Helena could have been at least a partial inspiration for the portion of Mulholland Drive that fixated on the hiring of a specific girl (complete with the angry “Italian” producer element that characterized the casting of The Sylvia North Story), and that whoever a director thinks they’re hiring as the lead isn’t necessarily “solid.” “Fixed in place,” if you will. And usually due to reasons far beyond the director in question’s control.
As for Madonna, the fuckery of moviemaking from the perspective of an actress prompted her to eventually quip, “To me, the whole process of being a brush stroke in someone else’s painting is a little difficult.” Though, had she been able to land an acting role in a David Lynch movie, she might have felt differently. For it’s not as though Madonna has worked with many gentle male movie directors throughout her career. And Lynch, in contrast to the average ego-driven director, was much lauded by every actor he ever worked with for his kindness and openness to collaboration.
