Madonna Lost Her ‘Clue’ Movie Role Because She Didn’t Go Far Enough in Her Audition

The movie Clue features an incredible cast of actors and Madonna was almost among them. Despite this, the Queen of Pop was denied a role in the film. Subsequently, another actor explained why she landed the part instead. 

Madonna lost a part in the movie ‘Clue’ to an actor who wore a maid outfit to her audition

Colleen Camp played Yvette, the French maid in Clue. During a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Camp discussed getting the role. “From what I understand, a number of people wanted the part, like Julianne Moore and Madonna,” she said. “But Jennifer Jason Leigh was the choice, and when she did not do the movie, my manager [whom I shared with Jennifer] suggested me. And I went full out — I dressed up in a maid’s outfit; I created this French accent. I basically got the part in the room.”

During a 2013 interview with BuzzFeed, director Jonathan Lynn was asked if Camp’s body helped get her the part. He said he never took it into consideration. Lynn just found Camp “hilarious.”

Notably, Clue came out in 1985. That was after songs such as “Like a Virgin,” “Dress You Up,” and “Material Girl” transformed Madonna from a B-list celebrity into a superstar. The Queen of Pop appearing in the film might have helped it at the box office. Then again, many of Madonna’s movies became notorious bombs.

A classic movie inspired the delivery of the dialog in ‘Clue’

Lynn showed the cast of Clue the classic comedy His Girl Friday to give them a sense of how they should deliver their dialogue. “He was very adamant about the pace,” Camp told Entertainment Weekly. “He wanted us to have the rhythm. 

“We would be almost overlapping dialogue,” she added. “There’d be a certain style to it. So, we all went to Paramount and when His Girl Friday ended, Eileen Brennan said, ‘You can tell this was before method acting. The people just talk.'”

Camp revealed that Lynn didn’t tell her who the killer was in the film. “I was trying to determine if everything was going according to plan,” she remembered. “Is anybody a double agent? I’m listening, and the brilliance of the blocking is that you actually started to get suspicious of other characters.”

The movie had 3 endings and that caused it to bomb in theaters

Clue was released in theaters with three different endings that played at different theaters. Camp said audiences didn’t like the idea of going to see the film three times. Lynn said the film’s gimmick was “a mess,” which is why no subsequent film used that gimmick. 

Since then, Clue was released on home video with all three endings. It’s become a cult classic, similar to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, another intentionally campy comedy starring Tim Curry. We’ll never know if Madonna appearing in the film would have made it more or less of a cult classic.

Clue is one of the best comedies of the 1980s even if Madonna didn’t appear in it.