Trivia / What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

• Actor-Shared Background: Laurence Fishburne admitted that the reason why he was able to play Ike so well is because he was physically abusive towards his first wife (he's deeply regretful of it and sought counseling to change his ways).
• Cast the Runner-Up: Jenifer Lewis originally auditioned to play Tina Turner but was cast instead as Tina's mother even though she was born in 1957 and just one year older than Angela Bassett.
• The Cast Showoff: Laurence Fishburne sang all of Ike Turner's parts.
• Creator Killer: Not to anyone involved with production, but this film's portrayal of Ike Turner turned virtually everyone and their brother against the real Ike Turner, whose public reputation in 1993 was already at an all-time low (he had just come out of prison) and was deep-sixed for good once this movie came out, never recovering even after his death in 2007. Ike was livid at Disney, who distributed this through Touchstone Pictures, but was unable to sue the Walt Disney Company due to having "accidentally" signed a waiver for $50,000.
• Dawson Casting: Angela Bassett was 34 when she portrayed Tina Turner at 18, but then obviously the movie covers several years of her life.
• Disowned Adaptation:
  • Ike Turner complained that negative portrayal of himself in the movie is inaccurate and that the movie and Tina's book are "filled with lies”, which no one believed and which he himself promptly undermined with statements that boiled down to “Yeah, I hit her, but only as much as the average man beats his wife”. He did however praise Laurence Fishburne's performance.
  • Tina Turner reportedly never watched the entire film, as she was displeased with how much Artistic License was taken. She even tried to appeal to Disney to have the script changed, only to find out they wanted a story about a woman who was a victim to a conman.
    "How weak! How shallow! How dare you think that was what I was? I was in control every minute there. I was there because I wanted to be, because I had promised." She added, "O.K. so if I was a victim, fine. Maybe I was a victim for a short while. But give me credit for thinking the whole time I was there. See, I do have pride."
  • Phil Spector slammed the movie (and the book) as a "piece of trash" which "demonized and vilified Ike".
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • Angela Bassett lip-synched all of the songs in this movie; Tina Turner sang all the tracks herself. Bassett said that while she had no problem keeping up with the energetic dance moves, she was never much of a singer. Though a little bit of Bassett's singing voice can be heard during the intro of Proud Mary.
  • Non-Chanting Voice: Vanessa Bell Calloway, who played Jackie, was uncomfortable reciting the Buddhist chant due to her strong Christian beliefs, so she was allowed to silently mouth that part during filming and it was dubbed in later.
• One-Take Wonder:
  • Angela Bassett was injured while filming the first spousal abuse sequence. She fell off the back of a high-rise sofa, put her hands out to reduce the impact, and suffered a hairline fracture of her right hand. She only tried the stunt fall once, and footage leading up to the mishap appears in the film.
  • The infamous scene where Ike rapes Tina in the studio was only done for a single take because Laurence Fishburne refused to do another one for such a monstrous act.
• Star-Making Role: The breakthrough for Angela Bassett, who became the first African-American woman to receive a Golden Globe for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy. And she was also nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Angela Bassett has said she would have been willing to replicate Tina's singing as well as speaking and dancing, but she was cast only a month before production began, so it was easier for her to lip-synch.
  • As despicable as Ike is in the film, according to Laurence Fishburne, the original script made him out to be downright evil, with no explanation for his abusive behavior whatsoever. Fishburne turned the role down five times before the writers added scene of Ike discussing his Freudian Excuse, as he felt that, if Ike were merely a Hate Sink, it would be too difficult to believe that Tina would stay with him.
  • Halle Berry, Pam Grier, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Vanessa Williams were all considered for Tina Turner.

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