On Thursday talking on the ABC Radio, filmmaker George Miller (Miliotis) lauded Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock’n’Roll, whom he said was like “a queen”.
Miller was born in Chinchilla, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents from Kythira rose to prominence with films like Mad Max, Happy Feat, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and his latest 3000 Years of Longing.
The Greek Australian said that while he has never met royalty, Turner was regal and ruled with positivity. The director of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome used Turner and her music in his post-apocalyptic big-budget film. “Every time we talked about Aunty Entity as we were writing, we’d say, ‘Oh, someone like Tina Turner,'” he said.
Milliotis said that Turner was “the opposite of a diva.” “I had the privilege of working with her and getting to see just what made her so magnificent. She was so sharp, mentally. She was acutely aware of the dynamics of every situation,” Milliotis said. He said that she was wise, and that wisdom emanated from “someone who endures so much in early life. It was despite that hardship that she rose to such great heights,” the director said and used it to become incredibly wise.
“I think she had that stature innately, from birth. I once saw her at a 50th birthday party, Mick Jagger and all those types gathered around her, behaving as if she was this great regal presence in court. I am noticing the way people are talking about her today, about how influential and generous she was. They all learned from her.”
Miller said that he had “learned from her.” “When we worked together, I could tell she got something out of learning about acting. But I was learning from her too – first, just doing the hard work. And second, how to inspire those around you to work together for a common goal.”
Miller reflected on how he saw her backstage after a concert when one of her band members was having problems. “He was having some kind of personal crisis and was thinking about moving on, ending his career. He came in to talk to her and I said, ‘Oh, I’ll leave the room.’ ‘No no,’ she said, ‘Listen.’ And I watched her talk to him. She understood his problems, she was firm with him, and she talked him off the ledge, as it were.”
Miliotis said that he was “impressed with her demeanor – her firmness on one hand, and her kindness on the other.” “A story that stuck in my mind was in 1988,” he said. “There were fireworks on Sydney Harbour for the bicentennial, and Turner had a boat and invited a lot of people to go out on it. My two-year-old daughter came along, and Tina played with her. As the night wore on, we had to put our daughter to bed in one of the bunks, but she didn’t want to go. She kept saying, ‘I want to play with the Tina Turner girl, I want to play with the Tina Turner girl.’ So we took her back. But Tina was so happy to keep playing with her. For that night at least, she was the Tina Turner girl.”
Miller talked about how the Queen of Rock’n’Roll grew up in the United States but was “very much an internationalist.” “Tina became a Swiss citizen… the last time I saw her was in the late 1990s when she was living on the coast of France, near Cannes. ‘She embraced Australia and Australia embraced her.'”
“Like everyone, you feel the loss. There was a very powerful presence there, and when that’s gone, there is a sadness, an awareness that this happens to all of us – even someone as magnificent as Tina.”