In 1986, Spike Lee was devouring a veggie burger and milkshake in a swish London hotel. His first feature, She's Gotta Have It, had earned $7m from American punters, including, it's now said, Barack Obama on his first date with Michelle. During the low-budget production, his weight had "dropped to about 110lb".
"There were times we didn't know where the next nickel for a drink would come from," said Lee, sucking on two straws behind aviator specs. "We were cashing in bottles for change. Every few hours of the shoot I'd send my production supervisor to see if any cheques had arrived." Some funding came from Brooklynite Spike's southern grandmother Zimmie, who'd put him through Atlanta's historically black all-male college Morehouse, while feeding him soul food. Lee also admitted product placements of "H&H Bagels, Tropicana, Bunn-O-Matic Coffee Maker, Martinelli's Sparkling Cider…"
The sparkling cider was a gift to the comedy's heroine Nola Darling, played by Tracy Camilla Johns, from one of the three rival lovers she'd invited to her Thanksgiving dinner, during which their choice of dark or white turkey became a subject of racial contention. Just as he was telling me that "Chevy Chase falling over a chair is the kind of comedy I don't like," Camilla Johns entered the room, dressed to the nines. She picked up a cup of coffee, sat on a Regency-style chair and it collapsed under her. Lee, spluttering milkshake, told her "We'll use that in School Daze!" (his next film).
What is your favourite line said by a suitor to Nola Darling? "I'm too shy to say it myself, but 'You so fine, I'd drink a tub of your bath water'."
