By 2010, Cher was an undisputed pop music deity. Her first film since 1967’s Good Times, Burlesque marked the rebirth of the singer’s acting career following the success of her three-year, 200-performance residency at the Colosseum in Las Vegas.

The 2010 musical was an equally gilded affair but received something of a bashing on release – and not only from the critics. Here, Cher explains why making the film was such a “horrible” experience.

Burlesque stars Christina Aguilera as Ali, a small-town girl with a big dream and an even bigger voice. Leaving her life in Iowa behind, she moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a performer. After countless unsuccessful auditions, she finds work as a cocktail waitress in a burlesque club owned by Tess Scali – played by Cher. When one of the leading dancers becomes pregnant, however, Ali spots her chance. With the aid of a loveable team of misfits, she helps bring about a new golden age for the once-fabled club.

Burlesque recieved mixed reviews on release. The film’s extravagant show tunes and glitzy set designs do little to disguise the absence of a plot and lazy, unintentionally hilarious dialogue. Though Stanley Tucci provides a welcome respite to the onslaught of hollow performances, there’s only so much one actor can do to salvage an overblown production hastily assembled.

That might sound harsh, but let’s not forget that Cher was equally dismissive of the production. A known film lover, she has been vocal about her dislike for both the movie’s script and its director, Steve Antin, both of whom she described as “really terrible.” In a 2018 interview, she also lamented the fact that her character hadn’t been given a romantic subplot. “In Burlesque, which was horrible, I had no love interest, I was running this [troupe], that’s who I was… It could have been a much better film,” she said. “It was always sad that it was not a good film.”

Back in 2010, however, Cher told Collider that she liked “working on this film so much that I really would like to do another film.” Obviously, holding her tongue was something of a necessity when the film hadn’t yet been torn apart by the press. Beyond that point, she must have felt free to give her honest opinion on the project, one that she claimed she wouldn’t have walked away from even if it had been an absolute nightmare from start to finish. “Whatever is in front of you is the thing you do,” she said before confessing that she would have preferred to do a musical in the same ballpark as Mamma Mia.

“The only movie I didn’t get to do, that I wanted to do, was Mamma Mia!” she continued, “And that was a pain in the ass.”

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