Tina Turner As an Actress

It would have been something if she'd accepted the role of Shug Avery in The Color Purple.

Apparently she declined and told Spielberg that she'd already lived the role, and didn't want to revisit it again.

Spielberg wanted her for Shug Avery in The Color Purple but she turned him down multiple times.

She was set to do an action movie called Fortress in the early 90's, but it fell through. There was a movie starring Christopher Lambert with a similar title and concept that came out around this time, I don't know if it was the one she was attached to.

Then came The Goddess by Merchant and Ivory co-starring Matthew Modine that again fell through because one of the producers passed.

The idea of doing Mad Max 4 was bandied about around the time of Turner's last tour. Which is why Turner wore her characters getup during the shows. But again, it didn't happen.

Tina also said she was offered a project where she was a nun who was supposed to teach a downtrodden Janet Jackson the meaning of life, and she turned it down immediately thinking it was beyond ridiculous.

I would have liked to see Tina as Catwoman over either Halle Berry or Michelle Pfeiffer. She would have played it like an angry alley cat.

Aside: is there anyone here who doesn't like and respect Tina? I doubt it.

She always played two dimensional characters, so never had much opportunity to develop her acting skills

If only Tina had done The Wiz

She was incredibly charismatic, so her acting skills weren’t as crucial as for other singers who didn’t have her presence.

It would have been fascinating to see her as Shug in the Color Purple, but Margaret Avery gave the best performance in the film, so I don’t think it’s such a loss.

After she did Thunderdome, she said making movies was okay, but she preferred touring, primarily because she made so much more money doing it.

And most of us have seen the palatial Swiss compound where she spent her final years. She knew what she was doing.

She turned down the role of Shug in The Color Purple. That would have been interesting. You shoke is ugly might read different from her in ways never thought possible.

I imagine the actress who played Shug Savory turned down many a music video appearance. I watched Colour Purple the other night. I think Oprah’s contribution loses something on the smaller screen, but it still towers over the acting of the fella who portrays Medea.

[quote]After she did Thunderdome, she said making movies was okay, but she preferred touring, primarily because she made so much more money doing it.

She loved Thunderdome. She wanted to do action movies as acting was her first love long before singing. Movies like Aliens and Die Hard. When she turned down Color Purple, she told Spielberg that she wanted to be in the next Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford.

She spent the early 90's looking for those kinds of roles but there weren't a lot. She was set to do one, but it didn't pan out.

Viola Davis and Angela Bassett are basically getting the kinds of action roles now that Turner wanted to do back then.

She didn't act in Tommy, nor did Elton.

R8 You’re an idiot.

Who rules barter town?

The person who played Shug did a fantastic job.

I think l having Tina Turner would have distracted the audiences because of her fame

In many ways Tina Turner was the first big black star to deem herself post racial. Sometimes that delusion is necessary. Just so much drama and turmoil and historical baggage, you just need to forget it sometimes for one’s sanity.

Auntie Entity was a wonderful character. She began as a hero who worked to found Bartertown, but in time became a tyrant because of her need to control it. She ultimately is moved by Max's sacrifice to allow his friends to escape and realizes that she and Max have a lot of traits in common. "Ain't we a pair?" She spares his life I think because he reminds her of who she used to be. Master escaping her means that Bartertown will have to evolve to survive - I always had the impression that Master made a point of not sharing his knowledge of how the methane power plant worked in order to protect himself. She says explicitly that they will rebuilt but only once they get Master back. Without him, it will be a challenge to figure things out and get Bartertown working again, but I can imagine Auntie actually welcoming the challenge. Master Blaster was her only revival. They are gone, and it is her chance to be the one to rebuild yet again.

Long answer, but basically it was a great character who showed how a hero could by stages become a villain, and then maybe find her way back. I think Tina Turner did a fine job of showing Auntie's various emotional qualities.

Fun (but not for Tina) fact: the steel mail dress that Turner wore for the part weighed nearly 60 kg. I recall seeing video of one of her concerts. When she would sing "Thunderdome", Tina would quickly don a similar-looking outfit, though clearly one that much lighter.

I really liked her in Mad Max. I also really LOVED the soundtrack.

R15 revival=rival

But did the actress who actually played Shug Avery get her own wall clock?

I think NOT.

Molly, you better be good to me!

I don't know about Tina. IMO she would have been limited. But then. Natalie Cole and Aretha Franklin did movies. I think Aretha would have the same problem as Tina. Limited, but Natalie could have done something with it.

[quote] Her role in Mad Max was deliciously layered,

Deliciously, Mary!

R20 Did the Color Purple casting director have Aretha in mind for the Ford model T used in the film?

She would have been great in the Angela Basset role in "What's Love Got to Do With It?"

I remember when she released her album '24 /7' in 1999/2000, she was doing promo interviews, and in one interview (I think it was on 'Today'), she said she was looking ahead in the new millennium to focus on acting, not recording albums and concerts. She mentioned being offered to star as Helen of Troy in a new movie which was being developed at the time, and she was interested in taking it. Nothing ever came of it, and nothing further developed for her as far as movies in her career.

R24 I always wondered why most of the material on 24/7 was so second-rate. When the Heartache is over was a hit, but that was pretty much it (I still love “Absolutely Nothing’s Changed” and “Go Ahead”).

Strange, because she was selling out entire stadiums all the way up to her last tour at 70 years old, so it’s not that there was a lack of public interest.

The album did come about last minute. The original plan was for Turner to tour with Elton John in 2000 then work on a new album for 2001. Unfortunately, Elton and Tina had a fight at Divas Live rehearsals and Turner refused to do the joint tour. It was then decided that she would do a solo tour, and the album was rushed into production to give her something to tour on.

R26 What fight? Who started it?

I bet it was that pasty bitch Mariah Carey.

That girl could sing, that was enough for me.

R26 Elton kept adding his signature piano flourishes into Proud Mary during the first rehearsal and Tina was not having it, she was a very “there’s only one way to do my song and that’s MY way” kind of performer when it came to her material. She saw Proud Mary as hers. Elton zinged back that “her” version was a cover of the original so there’s no need to go getting all proprietary about it, then the bickering became a fight and it just escalated.

Correction , my reply at R29 was meant for R27

Elton John is such a cunt all the fucking time JFC

Tina told him to play a note a certain way and Elton screamed at her that you don't tell him how to play the piano and stormed off the stage to his trailer. Tina followed and they had a blow out in Elton's trailer. When they came back, Elton apologized. Tina accepted and then publicly announced that the tour was off the day after the show.

She later said Elton was too insecure and wasn't confident like a Jagger or Bowie and the tour would have been a disaster.

I don't remember Turner mentioning anything at all about the Elton tour or their dust-up in her interviews. That's very interesting. She just seemed super-focused on putting her music career aside and focusing on films. She would've been an interesting choice to star as 'Helen of Troy'.

By the 90s, Turner was not as popular in the USA as she was in the mid-late 80s. Her albums 'Foreign Affair', 'Wildest Dreams', and '24/7' were not reaching the sales figures her label was hoping for. '24/7' spun off the single 'When The Heartache Is Over' which was supposed to be a major hit like 'Believe' was for Cher the year before. Unfortunately, it never took off in the US.

She didn’t want to be in black film projects, according to Quincy.

Maybe they both had too much class to let a little private blow-up like that become fodder for celebrity gossip.

Tina remained popular in Europe - particularly, bafflingly, in the German-speaking countries. Near the end of her life, when she qualified for Swiss citizenship, she had to sit for a language exam in her home canton, Zurich, requiring her to speak Swiss German.