Trivia Facts About Madonna’s First Movie

Four decades ago, audiences around the country got into the groove when Desperately Seeking Susan premiered in theaters on March 29, 1985. Originally conceived of as a modestly budgeted screwball comedy set in the world of the rock ‘n’ roll underground of ’80s New York, the success of Madonna‘s Like a Virgin, which had been released just six months prior, turned it into “the Madonna movie.” But there’s more to this film than the Material Girl and her many jelly bracelets (though those were some cool jelly bracelets). Read on for five things you never know about the new wave identity-swap comedy that audiences are still desperately seeking.

1It was inspired by a French avant-garde film

Everett Collection

In the 1974 French art film Celine and Julie Go Boating, the two title heroines meet in a park, and have some arty and difficult-to-follow adventures (one involves an abandoned house, but it’s not really abandoned, but also there’s some kind of time loop … I guess you just have to have seen it). But Susan screenwriter Leora Barrish was inspired by the strange, non-linear film when writing her comedy. As she told Yahoo! in 2015, “I liked the way [Celine and Julie Go Boating] plays with reality in an offhanded, barely perceptible way. [In Susan] the two women from different realms are curious about each other. … Each is drawn to look beyond her own world and experience the world of the other.” And despite their major stylistic differences, the films do share some elements — both include identity swaps and the heroines performing in magic shows.

2One film exec wanted Barbra Streisand to star

A STAR IS BORN, Barbra Streisand, 1976, SSTB 003, Photo by: Everett Collection (22009)

In original drafts of the film, “Susan was more of a hippie traveler — Diane Keaton in an embroidered shirt. The downtown Susan story, pyramid jacket, and Nefertiti earrings came later. During the first casting talks, Keaton and Goldie Hawn were considered,” said director Susan Seidelman. One film exec pushed for Barbra Streisand, which would have been quite a different film.

Once the movie was moved to the new wave scene, Ellen Barkin, Melanie Griffith, and Jennifer Jason Leigh were among those considered for Susan. When the production approached Rosanna Arquette about the film, she assumed they wanted her to play Susan — and was shocked that they instead were pursuing her for naive housewife Roberta.

3Not getting cast was good luck for Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis, 1988″ width=”490″ height=”720″ data-mce-src=”https://www.remindmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MSDDIHA_EC008-490×720.jpg”> 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection.

Willis was among the young, up-and-coming actors who auditioned to play Dez, a friend of Susan’s boyfriend who falls in love with an amnesiac Roberta. The role eventually went to Aidan Quinn, which turned out to be a great boon to Willis — Seidelman told Yahoo, “Years later, I ran into Bruce, and he thanked me. Because he didn’t get the part in Susan, he moved to L.A. and was cast in Moonlighting.”

4Madonna-mania led to some weird movie poster ideas

(c) Orion/courtesy Everett Collection

Though filming ended in November 1984 — just weeks after Like a Virgin was released — the film’s studio wanted the movie released in March because, according to producer Midge Sanford in Yahoo, “people there thought Madonna’s career might be over by the time it came out.” It was the singer’s first film role, aside from a cameo in the same year’s VisionQuest.

Because of this, they wanted to emphasize Madonna in all the film’s promotional materials. Instead of a poster with Arquette and Madonna posed together in flashy, hip outfits (shot by photography superstar Herb Ritts, according to Sanford, “Orion’s idea for posters included one with Madonna standing in front of a brick wall and Rosanna peeping over it. Another had Madonna’s face reflected on a toaster and Rosanna’s on a piece of toast popping out.” Why didn’t they want the Ritts shot? “A marketing guy looked at the slide and said, ‘If you put two women on a poster, people will think it’s a lesbian movie,’” said Sanford. Luckily, saner (and toast-free) heads prevailed, and Susan got the iconic poster it deserved.

5A famous director’s dad made a cameo

In a 2020 interview with Vulture, Rosanna Arquette revealed that in the film’s climactic sequence set at a magic club, Martin Scorsese‘s father, Charles, was one of the extras. “The magic scenes. Martin Scorsese’s father was in one as an extra, this sweet old man in the audience, while I’m doing the magic show,” Arquette recalled. “Yeah. John Turturro and I loved him. He was wonderful.” Charles popped up in cameos in a number of his son’s films, and is best known for his small role as Vinnie in the film Goodfellas.

6Susan’s jacket was given to a rock star’s kids

Arquette didn’t hang on to the famous pyramid jacket that represents her transformation into a free spirit — she passed it along to the daughters of her boyfriend at the time, Peter Gabriel, “I’d given [the jacket] to Peter Gabriel’s daughters for them to share,” she told Vulture. “And they were looking for it recently, trying to find it … I called them and they can’t find it. Life goes on. They probably said, ‘What do we need this rag for?’ They probably threw it out.”