Madonna has never been someone who does things by half.
So when she married film director Guy Ritchie and moved to England - 'At first I felt sort of lost and a little bit like an outsider', she admits - she decided to work her hardest to fit in.
'I thought, OK, if I'm going to make myself more comfortable in this country, I'm going to have to learn some of its history', she says.
'I began with Henry V111 and worked my way up to Edward V11, and I stopped there because I was so struck with what he'd done.
He gave up his throne for the woman he loved..
'I was intrigued and mystified. Why would he do this? Men since the beginning of time have fought to get on the throne. Men are power-seeking animals, so why would this man run away from it?
Why would he give it up? What did this woman have that would inspire him to make such a great sacrifice? I wanted to know more about her.'
The more Madonna learned about Wallis the closer she felt to her. They were both Americans struggling to fit into the British Establishment.
They were the most famous women of their day and style icons who constantly had their characters pored over and demonised. Both were criticised for their ambition.
'I became completely and utterly swept up in the subject. I developed an unconscious attraction to Wallis. She'd come to England from the USA and found herself being treated like an outsider.
'That was the connection between us, although in time I realized I was welcome here, unlike Wallis, who was never accepted.'
Madonna became obsessed with the story and her fascination with Wallis far outlasted her eight-year marriage to Guy.
When she learned that Wallis had once lived around the corner from her home in central London when her affair with Edward started, although she was still married to businessman Ernest Simpson, Madonna says she would sit outside the apartment 'like a stalker', as she tried to put herself in Wallis' shoes.
She decided to see if it would be possible to make a film of the story, but - in spite of her superstar status opening many doors for her - she found the odds were stacked against her.
When she was turned down from buying the rights to a new Wallis book she was thinking about ending the project until a chance coincidence.
Answering a knock on her front door one night, she found nobody there - but parked outside was a van with the name Montague Removals on the side. Montague was Wallis's maiden name. 'I thought, "right, that's a sign", recalls the singer. So she persevered.
The result is W.E., Madonna's cinematic re-telling of the Wallis story, which she calls 'a three-year labour of love'.
The title - which Madonna pronounces as 'we' - comes from the way Wallis and Edward always ended their letters to each other, binding their initials.
'I never saw it as a simple love story', explains Madonna.' Nor is it particularly sentimental. I think love is impossible to describe or explain - it's like trying to understand the nature of God, or the laws of the universe.
'What I do know is that it's the force that moves us all and without it we couldn't exist'.
The film is a two handed look at Wallis; the story is told through the prism of a modern American, Wally Winthrop (her mother was such a fan that she was named after Wallis) who - as her marriage collapses around her - becomes obsessed with the story of what she considers the greatest love affair of the 20th century.
Like Madonna before her, Wally becomes entranced with the minutiae of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's lives as their possessions go on sale at Sothebys (in 1998 a sale of just some of their possessions reached ￡15million) and discovers the prosaic truths behind their romance as she reads their private letters.
With Madonna - a self-confessed control freak - micro-managing as director, writer, and with a producer credit, filming did not get off to a good start.
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