Madonna's Latest Transformation: Crusading Filmmaker

Speaking about her photo spread in the May issue Vanity Fair magazine (she graces the cover), Madonna said, "I like the way I look better now. My thighs aren't as chubby. I'm not kidding. I'm being perfectly honest with you. …I see myself as practical and handsome and useful. I don't think of myself as a great beauty. But I think of myself as stylish."

"I look thinner naked," she added. "Don't ask. It's weird."

She acknowledged that there's a double standard when it comes to women's ages; that more is being made of her age than that of male rock stars such as Sting (56), Mick Jagger (64), Billy Joel (59), or David Bowie (61).

Related

PHOTOS: Teri Hatcher Prepares for Triathlon

WATCH: Madonna on Motherhood

Madonna's 'Candy': No Politics, All Dance

"I don't think we live in just a sexist society, we live in an ageist society, connected to women," she said. "I think women in an unconscious way are valued for their youth, youthful beauty, not so much for their wisdom and experience. Hopefully, we're going to change all that."

'Let the People Tell Their Story'

Effecting change is part of what drew the star to make the documentary. Madonna said that she had already been talking to husband Guy Ritchie about the possibility of adopting a child when she received a phone call from Victoria Keelan, who does humanitarian work in Malawi.

"When the student is ready a teacher appears," she said. "This light bulb went off."

In April of 2006 Madonna headed to the tiny South African country — one of the poorest countries in the world — intent on adopting a child and making a film. With her on that first trip was a young man who for years had helped take care of her kids and worked as her gardener who she had decided would direct her film — a choice that raised many eyebrows.

"Well, it's not good to think in a limited way," she said. "After all I used to be the jelly squirter at Dunkin Donuts."

The film they have made together is in many ways unexpected. It is not about Madonna and only indirectly about her attempt to adopt a little boy named David. It is a sweeping look at a country where children are raising other children and where more than half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Madonna steps off center stage and lets the children tell their own stories.