Actor Laurence Fishburne is on the business of laying bare his mind about the therapy he sought after being physically abusive with his first wife.
Fishburne appeared on the Jemele Hill Is Unbothered podcast where she asked him how he prepared for the role. Instead of giving a vague response, Fishburne spoke candidly about the personal experience that shaped his portrayal of Ike.
“Having had some experience with that as a young man, I did a lot of counseling,” Fishburne said, in the clip captured by The Jasmine Brand.
He recalled how his healing took him about five years in therapy and used his past experience when tapping into the role of Ike Turner, who was physically abusive to Tina Turner during their marriage.
Fishburne continued saying: “I got married when I was twenty-three years old, my first wife was twenty-one,” he explained, referring to his ex-wife Hajna O. Moss.
“And our relationship was very volatile. And I was physically abusive with my first wife, to my regret, and to my shame.”
“So, I was very familiar with the territory and with the emotional landscape of what, you know, brings a person to that place,” he explained. “Where they feel the need to be abusive to their partner.”
