Evita

When Perón told Eva he was dying, Madonna and Sir Jonathan Pryce broke down in tears and could not sync to the pre-recorded tracks. The vocals had to be recorded live on set.

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Michelle Pfeiffer was also considered for the role of Eva Perón, and when the film was planned to be directed by Oliver Stone, she even took several months of vocal training for the part.

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Madonna changed costumes 85 times, more than Elizabeth Taylor did in Cleopatra (1963). Madonna wore 39 hats, 45 pairs of shoes and 56 pairs of earrings. For this she entered the Guinness World Record that year. Impressive, but not the all-time record: Donald Brooks designed a 125-piece wardrobe for Julie Andrews for the 1968 musical Star!

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Antonio Banderas speaks only six words of dialogue in the entire film. The rest of his lines are sung.

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Madonna underwent extensive vocal training to prepare for the role of Eva Perón. Accordingly, she trained with the same teacher who taught Patti LuPone, the creator of the role on Broadway.

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Most of Eva's costumes were based on the clothes the real Eva Perón wore. Some were recreated from photographs, but many were based on the originals still kept in state vaults in Argentina.

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The final shot of the interior of the Casa Rosada was filmed using an 18 mm lens made by Joe Dunton, the widest-angle anamorphic lens ever produced.

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The call sheet for the funeral sequence listed 4,000 extras: 200 soldiers, 50 officers, 50 infantry police, 60 sailors, 60 nurses, 300 working-class women, 100 upper-class women, 51 descamisados, 20 naval officers, 12 naval police, 300 working-class men, 15 palace guards, 8 pallbearers, 60 naval cadets, 60 army cadets, 300 middle-class women, 300 middle-class men, 100 aristocratic men, 100 boys, 100 girls, 200 men of the past, 200 women of the past, 1,400 of various backgrounds, a gun carriage, the coffin, 4 army motorcycles, 2 police motorcycles, 6 Bren carriers, 2 half-track military vehicles, 2 Fox tanks, 4 army trucks and a CGT float.

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Madonna speaks only 140 words of dialogue. The rest of her lines are sung.

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At various points during the film's development, Bob Gunton, Julio Iglesias and Raul Julia were considered for the role of Juan Domingo Perón.

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In the memorial scene in the rain, one of the mourners holds a photograph of the real-life Eva Perón.

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Ken Russell was the first director attached. His first choice to play Eva was Barbra Streisand, but she also turned it down. His second choice was Liza Minnelli, whom he put through a screen test, but the casting was vetoed by lyricist Sir Tim Rice, who wanted Elaine Paige, who had taken on the stage role in London. Paige was also Rice's girlfriend.

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British singer and actress Billie Piper can also be seen as an extra, playing a girl who asks Juan Perón for his autograph just before he meets Eva.

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It took Sir Alan Parker three attempts to make this film. The first attempt was in 1977 but was cancelled because producer Robert Stigwood wanted to stage the London theatre version first. At the second attempt, around the opening of the Broadway version in 1979, Stigwood asked Parker about Fame, promising him but then not answering because he was making another musical at the time (after which Parker hesitated to take on another musical). Parker finally moved forward with the film at the end of 1994, when Andrew G. Vajna's company Cinergi offered him the chance.

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Patti LuPone, who played the title role in the original Broadway cast of Evita, was offered the role of Evita's mother but turned it down. Although Madonna wanted to know what she thought, LuPone reportedly never watched the film.

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It was selected ninth among the "Best of Film 1996" in Time Magazine's year-end review issue dated 23 December 1996.

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Mandy Patinkin was considered for the role of Che, which he created on Broadway.

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Jeremy Irons was considered for the role of Juan Perón.

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Patti LuPone, who originated the role of Evita on Broadway, admitted in an interview that she had heard part of the film's soundtrack even though she had never seen the film. She expressed frustration that the keys of many of the songs had been changed and that their emotional impact had therefore changed as well.

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Antonio Banderas and Sir Jonathan Pryce received their first Oscar nominations at the 2020 Academy Awards, competing in the same category: Best Actor in a Leading Role.

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Patrick Swayze was considered for the role of Che.

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The original Broadway production of "Evita" opened at the Broadway Theatre on 25 September 1979, ran for 1,567 performances and won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Musical.

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Madonna made 85 costume changes in the role of Eva, breaking the previous record of 65 set in Cleopatra.

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Meryl Streep, Pia Zadora, Charo and Maria Conchita Alonso were considered for the role of Evita.

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At various points in the film's development, Elliott Gould, Barry Gibb, Meat Loaf, David Essex, John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone were considered for the role of Che.

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It was the only Oscar nominee that year nominated for Best Editing that was not also nominated for Best Picture.

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It was included on the American Film Institute's 2006 list of 180 films nominated in the AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals category.

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At the concert where Juan Perón first meets Eva, his companion on the journey throws Eva out.

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Sir Jonathan Pryce and Madonna nearly appeared together in Brazil (1985), in which the singer/actress was considered by the director for the role of Jill Layton. The role went to Kim Greist. Both Pryce and Madonna appeared in films in the James Bond series during the Pierce Brosnan era: Pryce was the villain Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and Madonna had a small role in Die Another Day (2002), for which she also performed the theme song.

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Liza Minnelli, Elaine Paige, Stephanie Lawrence, Catherine Deneuve and Barbra Streisand wanted the role of Evita. Deneuve refused to audition, and Streisand asked for too much: £1 million plus a percentage of the film's profits plus half a million for the soundtrack album.

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One of Eva's lovers early in the film was Señor Jabón (Mister Soap), who arranged the soap commercial job for Eva.

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According to director Sir Alan Parker, at various stages of the film's long development Cher, Ann-Margret, Diane Keaton, Cyndi Lauper and Marie Osmond were considered to play Eva Perón, and Elton John was considered for the role of Che.

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According to reports, Madonna beat out Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Glenn Close, Cher, Olivia Newton-John, Pia Zadora, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Gloria Estefan, Charo, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Page and Maria Conchita Alonso for the lead role.

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The blue Harley Davidson WLA motorcycle seen in the funeral scene was restored by Mark Evans in the British series A Bike Is Born (2002).

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Ken Russell, who wanted Liza Minnelli, was to direct the film, but he withdrew from the project because the negotiations dragged on too long.

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Evita resembles the concept album (The White Album) far more than the original Broadway production.

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Evita marks Lucinda Rhodes Thakrar's debut.

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