When legendary Australian film director George Miller was writing the role of ruthless post-apocalyptic ruler Aunty Entity for his Mad Max sequel in 1985, he wanted someone who was “like Tina Turner” to play the part.
Speaking on Thursday, after the death of Turner had been announced, Miller remembered when it came time to casting, they simply said well, let’s ask the woman herself.
“To my good fortune, her [US-based] manager Roger Davies was Australian, and he asked her and she said, ‘You know, I’ve just been looking for something like this to work out’,” Miller told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“She’d acted before in Tommy [the 1975 musical where she played the acid queen] … and this suited, and she really loved [and wanted] to do it.”
Turner, who died in Switzerland on May 24 at the age of 83 after a long illness, had also reflected on her Mad Max role.
“They actually referred to her as ‘the Tina Turner character’. Finally, it occurred to someone to ask the real Tina if she’d consider taking on the role,” she wrote in her 2018 autobiography, Tina Turner: My Love Story.
‘Soundtrack to our lives’
At the time, Turner was experiencing a resurgence in her career after a tumultuous two decades performing on the road.
“I wanted to fill concert halls and arenas like the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart … that was quite an ambition for a 40-year-old female singer, whose best years seemed to be behind her,” she wrote.
Of connecting with Davies, she says: “It was our destiny to come together at this moment.
“Two people standing on the brink of new lives. He wanted an artist. I wanted a manager. His ambition was to build a star and I needed someone to believe in me, to take me to that place. We both got what we wanted.”
She got a chartbuster, Private Dancer, and won record of the year at the 27th annual Grammy Awards in 1984.
And then she joined forces again with her Scottish singer-songwriter Graham Lyle and English-Australian songwriter Terry Britten, and Mad Max‘s anthem, We Don’t Need Another Hero, was born.
She went on to have a deep connection to Australia, becoming best known for her wildly popular hits, including Nutbush City Limits, River Deep, Mountain High and The Best.
Tweet from @NRL
Simply, the best
As the news of Turner’s death reverberated around the music and entertainment industries globally, it was her association with rugby league in the 1990s that put her on a completely different stage.
She was first introduced to rugby league with the 1989 campaign, ‘What You Get Is What You See’ in a marriage designed to reignite her career and give the sport a marketing hit.
There was immediate blowback, with questions from coaches and critics about why the game had coughed up cash for an American grandmother to be the face of the game.
It was arguably the greatest marketing decision Australian rugby league ever made.
Turner’s next hit was her biggest.
The league’s Simply the Best campaign took hold in 1990 and left administrators battling to find a marketing strategy that went close to it over the next three decades.
Former ARL boss John Quayle recalled how his team managed to buy the rights to The Best for five years, securing it as the sport’s long-held anthem and as the theme for Turner’s famed advertisements.
“She came to the grand final in ’93 and then we sponsored one of her national tours, which was wonderful,” Mr Quayle told Seven’s Sunrise program on Thursday.
“She was just such a wonderful lady. She related so well with the players. She made them feel so good about it every time (she would) walk onto a set.”
Rugby league commercials featuring The Best were intended to bolster the number of women watching the sport, Mr Quayle said.
They were a resounding success, dramatically increasing female audiences and enrapturing Australians.
“That theme increased the coverage from women across the game at that time by about 60 per cent even though we went to enemy territory … in Victoria and South Australia where people said, ‘We don’t like your game … (but) gee, we love that commercial’,” Mr Quayle said.
The Nutbush line dance – uniquely Australian
For some reason, and it’s hard to say why, Australians embraced Turner’s 1973 Nutbush City Limits song in the 1980s, and would perform a line dance anywhere and everywhere … in schools, at weddings, outback concerts and community events.
Everyone remembers at least one function they were at when asked to get up and “do the Nutbush“.
On July 7 last year in Birdsville in outback Queensland, the annual Aussie tradition of gathering to perform the song set a Guinness World record for the most number of dancers.
Exactly 4084 people turned up, raising $60,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The show must go on
Timing is everything in show business.
Just last week, the highly anticipated Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, opened at Sydney’s Theatre Royal, having been performed around the world since 2018.
Produced by Paul Dainty and featuring 23 of her iconic songs, a star-studded who’s who gathered to watch Turner’s life immortalised on stage.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was sad to hear about Turner’s passing, describing her as a legend who overcame domestic violence and trauma to achieve global success.
“Here in Australia, Simply the Best was such a soundtrack for those who loved rugby league as well,” he said.
She provided a “soundtrack to our lives”, Mr Albanese told Sydney radio station WSFM.
