Tina Turner’s contributions to film have been fairly rare. The singer, who has just left us at the age of 83, could however have added to her hunting list a very big role offered by Spielberg, which she nevertheless declined.
Tina Turner’s contributions to cinema have been quite rare, but significant. Like the GoldenEye title track which accompanied Pierce Brosnan’s first mission as 007 in 1995, and which is one of the most popular songs in the James Bond saga.
On screen, Tina Turner had camped Entity, implacable leader of Bartertown opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max beyond Thunderdome (1985), the Mayor of Last Action Hero for the time of a nice cameo alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger / Jack Slater, or the Acid Queen of Ken Russell’s Tommy in 1975.
But the queen of Rock’n Roll could have added an additional contribution to cinema, and not just any: the title role in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece adapted from Alice Walker’s work, The Color purple, who will be played by Whoopi Goldberg.
In an interview with the singer dated 1986, granted to Italian television and having just resurfaced, Tina Turner explains the reason why she refused the role that Spielberg had offered her. The story of the character played by Whoopi Goldberg, abused and beaten by her husband, reminded her too much of her own experience with her ex-husband, Ike Turner…
“I mean, I always talk to the Press about my life [privée] and now to make a film out of it? I just drag myself down. I try to forget the past because it’s over. It’s over. I’ve finished that part of my life, and I’m not going to play a role that will remind me of what I’ve already been through.” Adding: “I think Steve understood that I couldn’t do it for that reason, finally, after really expressing what it meant to me.”