Toronto 2011: A Nervous Madonna Says She's Proving Herself All Over Again as a Film Director

9:59 AM PDT 9/12/2011 by Etan Vlessing

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Madonna - Toronto Film Festival - P 2011

The singer-turned-director betrayed anxiety Monday as she unveiled her second film, "W.E.," at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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“Of course I do. Because it’s new,” the singer-turned-director told a Toronto International Film Festival presser as she unveiled her second film, W.E., in Toronto.

“I had the same pressure when I began my music career, and I was nervous and I didn’t know what to expect and people didn’t know what to expect, and I had to earn my way in being taken seriously in the music department, and now I have to do that in film,” Madonna said.

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The Material Girl said she wanted to revisit Britain's 1930s royal melodrama about Wallis Simpson and Edward 8th in part to demystify society's modern-day obsession with celebrities.

“The idea is that there are so many rumors that are now believed to be true about Wallis Simpson, and when I investigated their story, there were so many of them that I could find no empirical evidence that they were true,” Madonna told the TIFF presser.

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With historical figures and contemporary celebrities alike, Madonna insisted rumors become like Chinese whispers, appearing more truthful as they are passed on.

“We always reduce our historical figures to sound bites, and that’s truly unfair,” she said.