David Harbour has revealed that Madonna called him to audition for one of the flop movies she directed after finding him ‘sexy.’
The heartthrob played Wallis Simpson’s discarded husband Ernest in W.E., Madonna’s 2011 film about the love affair that led to Edward VIII’s abdication.
In a new interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, David, 47, dished that Madonna was enticed after she saw his steamy love scene with Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road.
He referred to his ‘crazy’ audition process as ‘a real cloak-and-dagger type of experience’ due to the enforced confidentiality around the film.
Heartthrob: David Harbour has revealed that Madonna called him to audition for one of the flop movies she directed after finding him ‘sexy’
Apparently a female casting director rang him up and said: ‘They’re putting together a top-secret movie read-through, but you just have to show up at the St. Regis and like go into this room and all will be revealed.’
David, who regarded the prospect as ‘weird and creepy,’ wondered why ‘they want me’ and the casting director initially refused to say.
Then she revealed: ‘Well, the director really liked you in this movie Revolutionary Road. You have a like a sex scene in it and she thought you were, you know – THEY thought you were sexy,’ David recalled, correcting the quote.
Celebratory: Madonna is pictured last week during her family’s Thanksgiving festivities
Filmmaking: David, 47, dished that Madonna was enticed after she saw his steamy love scene with Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road; David and Kate are pictured on the set
Throwback: David played Wallis Simpson’s discarded husband Ernest in W.E., Madonna’s 2011 film about the love affair that led to Edward VIII’s abdication; he is pictured at the premiere
At the helm: Madonna is pictured on the set of W.E., which bombed at the box office and was torn to shreds by the critics to the tune of a dismal 12% rating on
He spent the weekend leading up to the read-through imagining he would be sitting down with a filmmaker along the lines of Martin Scorsese or Ridley Scott.
When he walked into the St. Regis, however, he found himself confronted with a collection of ‘New York actors’ and the Material Girl herself.
‘I mean, the first thing that flooded over me was before she even opened her – I was like: “Wow, Madonna thinks I’m sexy,”‘ he confessed. ‘I was really excited about that.’
The read-through ‘was a truly harrowing, exciting experience,’ he said, adding that Madonna ‘wanted everyone to call her M at the time’ but he, being ‘cocky’ and ‘a punk kid,’ rebelliously kept slipping her usual name into the conversation.
David had been sweet on Madonna from the age of 11, when he saw her raunchy music video for Open Your Heart starring her as a peepshow dancer.
In the music video, Madonna also interacts with a little boy – possibly her son – who has been trying unsuccessfully to get into her performance venue.
Rejecting all the grown men who have been slavering over her, she eventually skips off into the sunset hand in hand with the small child.
‘And so there I am in this, you know, boardroom of the St. Regis and it all comes flooding back and I’m there with a bowler cap just like: “I’m gonna run off with you into the distance!”‘ he said, referring to the costumes from the music video.
Jimmy raised the possibility that the little boy was her son ‘waiting for Mom to get off work,’ and David sheepishly said: ‘I did not interpret it that way.’
David was under no illusions about W.E., calling Madonna ‘a genius in many realms’ while saying mildly: ‘The film was not a terrific movie.’
Even during the production he confessed that ‘we had some inkling’ about how the finished product was likely to turn out.
W.E. bombed at the box office and was torn to shreds by the critics to the tune of a dismal 12% rating on the review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.
Throwback: David had been sweet on Madonna from the age of 11, when he saw her raunchy music video for Open Your Heart (pictured) starring her as a peepshow dancer
David is currently married to the English pop act Lily Allen, who has been scathing about Madonna multiple times over the years.
The year W.E. came out Lily remarked in a Channel Four documentary that she did not want to pursue pop stardom into old age like Madge.
‘My idea of hell would be doing this in 25 years’ time,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be like Madonna, look at her, she’s mental. No offense but that is not what drives me. I want to get married and have kids and make sandwiches cutting the crusts off.’
A half-decade earlier when GQ asked her to name the most overrated figure in the history of pop, Lily infamously named Madonna.
‘Madonna, look at her, she’s mental’: David is currently married to the English pop act Lily Allen, who has been scathing about Madonna multiple times over the years
‘I haven’t got anything against her at all but I don’t think anything she’s done since the early Eighties has really been, like: “wow,”‘ said Lily. ‘She might have meant something once but I don’t know many people my age who care.’
Antonio Banderas told Harper’s Bazaar a few years ago that Madonna was also sweet on him in the 1990s, before they co-starred together in Evita.
When he discovered Madonna was interested in him he had ‘no idea what I should do about this’ as he was married. ‘So, nothing happened,’ he explained.
‘I was afraid of it at the time, because she was a very powerful woman. I didn’t want to be Madonna’s boy. For good or for bad, I just wanted to have my own career.’
Throwback: Antonio Banderas told Harper’s Bazaar a few years ago that Madonna was also sweet on him in the 1990s, before they co-starred together in Evita (pictured)
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