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What Tina Turner Really Thought of Angela Bassett’s Portrayal of Her in What’s Love Got to Do With It

Tina Turner said in 1993 that she felt safe after meeting Angela Bassett, who had done considerable research, but she objected to profanity, clothing and some depictions in the film.
Opened Runtime5 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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Tina Turner’s documented view of Angela Bassett’s portrayal was favorable toward Bassett’s preparation, but it was not a blanket endorsement of the film. In a 1993 interview with Richard Harrington, published in The Washington Post on June 5, 1993, Turner said she felt safe after meeting Bassett because Bassett had done considerable research. She also said her own hands-on help was limited to footwork and body movement. In the same interview, Turner objected to parts of the screenplay and to how parts of her life were depicted. Her praise concerned Bassett’s work; her objections concerned the filmmakers’ choices. Neither set of remarks shows that she rejected Bassett’s performance as a whole.

What Turner said about Bassett’s preparation

The most direct source is Harrington’s Washington Post interview. Turner’s central remark on Bassett was: “I met Angela and I felt safe that she had done quite a bit of research.” That is a statement about Bassett’s preparation and about Turner’s comfort with the actor who would play her. It is not a statement that Turner approved of every acting choice in the finished film.

Turner also described her own involvement. She said: “I worked with her on some footwork and some body movement — I never liked to work to the front gyrating, I always like to do a little sidestepping — but basically that’s all I did.” Read in context, Turner was describing a small, specific contribution, not co-creating the performance.

Where Turner drew the line

Turner’s reservations were specific rather than general. The table below separates each topic she addressed in the 1993 interview from the position she took on it.

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Topic Turner’s position, as reported in 1993
Bassett’s research Positive. Turner said she felt safe because Bassett had done “quite a bit of research.”
Bassett’s movement Limited involvement. Turner said she gave footwork and body-movement help and that “basically that’s all I did.”
Profanity in scenes Objection. She said, “I wasn’t one for expressing myself in profanity.”
Clothing in a pool-party scene Objection, reported by Harrington.
Depiction of her home Objection. She felt it did not reflect how she tried to keep things together.
Fact and fiction in biopics Accepted in principle. She said, “there’s always fiction and fact in these movies.”
Script approval None. She said she had no script approval and had not asked for it.
Bassett’s performance overall Not stated as a verdict in the 1993 reporting. Her praise addressed preparation and the working relationship.

Turner’s own summary of the objections was dismissive. Harrington reported her conclusion: “It was just vain stuff.” She said she had spoken with the filmmakers, who changed some things, but that disagreements remained over the kind of movie they wanted to make. Her response was: “Okay, go ahead and make your movie.”

Why she did not ask to approve the script

Turner said she did not want to see the film right away, though she wanted to know what the filmmakers had done. She explained her trust in the process: “I trusted that they would stay as close as they could, even though there’s always fiction and fact in these movies. Even if it’s someone’s life, they still mix it up. And this is 20 years that they put into two hours!” Her position was that a two-hour film could not hold two decades of a life without compression, and that she accepted that in principle while still disliking particular scenes.

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What the production record adds

Los Angeles Times production reporting from the film’s release period describes Bassett and choreographer Michael Peters studying recordings of Turner to reproduce her performance details, and says Turner visited the production and made corrections. That supports the idea that Turner was involved and that Bassett prepared carefully. It does not replace Turner’s own words about what she thought.

The same coverage notes that the filmmakers compressed decades into a feature and combined events. It also identifies the film’s treatment of “River Deep, Mountain High” as a significant departure from the song’s actual chart history. The film is therefore best described as a dramatization based on Turner’s life and her 1986 autobiography, I, Tina, co-written with Kurt Loder, rather than a documentary or a literal account.

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Bassett’s own account

Bassett described her approach in the same production reporting as focused on emotional truth rather than imitation: “I’m no imitator or impersonator. The emotional life–that’s my forte. Truth and honesty.” This is Bassett’s description of her own work. It explains her method but is not a statement by Turner.

Critical reception is a separate question

Contemporary reviewers praised Bassett’s performance while expressing reservations about other parts of the film. The Washington Post review described her work favorably, and Deseret News called the lead performances “Oscar-worthy.” TIME’s 2023 profile says the role earned Bassett her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. These facts explain the performance’s reputation. They describe how critics and awards bodies judged the film, not what Turner privately thought of it.

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The quotations in context

All quotations in this article are from Tina Turner as printed in Harrington’s June 5, 1993 Washington Post report. They reflect her views at that time. They are not a complete record of everything Turner said about the film or about Bassett in later years, and readers should not treat them as a final judgment on the film.

Turner’s most balanced line may be her stated outlook after the disagreements: “But I’m hopeful,” Turner says. “I won’t be negative.” Taken together with her praise of Bassett’s research, it points to a reaction that combined appreciation for the actor’s work with objections to the filmmakers’ choices, rather than outright rejection.

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Taken as a whole, the 1993 reporting shows Turner approving of Bassett’s preparation and feeling reassured by it, while holding firm objections to specific scenes, clothing, and depictions of her home. That is the accurate answer to the question of what she thought of Bassett’s portrayal.

Bassett’s Oscar nomination and the critics’ praise reflect how the performance was received publicly. Turner’s own opinion, as recorded in 1993, rests on her interview remarks and her comments about the filmmakers, which should be read on their own terms.

Note: the film’s account of Turner’s life is a dramatization, and the production reporting identifies compression and invented or combined events. Readers who want Turner’s own account of her life can look to I, Tina; confirm current edition and availability before purchasing.

Turner’s objections, as reported, concerned the screenplay, costumes, and the factual treatment of her home and career. None of those objections is a rejection of the acting itself.

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