Angela Bassett worked out for 12 hours and had zero time to eat when playing Tina Turner

26 June 2023

Angela Bassett worked out for 12 hours and had no time to eat when she played Tina Turner in ‘What’s Love Got to do With It’.

Angela Bassett worked out for 12 hours and had no time to eat when she played Tina Turner in ‘What’s Love Got to do With It’

The 64-year-old ended up with a best actress Oscar nomination for playing Tina in the harrowing 1993 film, which charted Tina’s brutal years with her abusive husband Ike Turner, who subjected her to years of physical and mental torment so severe it left the late singer with PTSD.

In an interview with Variety to mark the 30th anniversary of the film about the ‘Private Dancer’ singer, who died in May aged 83 at her home in Switzerland after years of battling kidney problems, Angela said about her gruelling regime on the film: “You got up at five in the morning, went to the gym to work out for two-and-a-half hours.

“Then you would head to Michael Peters (the choreographer) and learn routines – which were all intense cardio – for about 10 hours. Ten hours!

“You had to be so focused and so determined. Pain was irrelevant. Fear was real and physical pain and torture was just going to be a part of it. Every part of your body hurt and there was no time to eat anything.”

Angela added about her diet on the film: “Broccoli, string beans, Yukon potatoes and bland chicken breast. That’s what my trainer suggested for me. “And black coffee and water. Literally. And there was no time to sit down at a table and eat those items.

“You literally stood stuffing them in your face, one-by-one and then jump back on the dance floor. I was losing inches every week.

“I would go see Ruth Carter, our costume designer, and every week it was less and less of me – inches just melting away. It was a schedule you would never keep up again.”