The biggest regret of Spike Lee’s career
For almost 40 years, Spike Lee‘s career has seen him forging his own path through the world of cinema, becoming one of the defining directorial talents of his generation in the process. Throughout the years, he’s primarily stuck to his own guns and maintained a large amount of autonomy, which hasn’t left him with too many regrets.
However, one moment stands out as something he wishes he’d never done, and it came in his very first feature. Written, directed, produced, and edited by Lee – who also plays a significant role as Mars Blackmon – She’s Gotta Have It announced his arrival as a filmmaking force to be reckoned with.
The story finds Tracy Camilla Johns’ Nola Darling struggling to settle on what kind of man she wants to be with, so she decides to date three at once. John Canada Terrell’s Greer Childs is wealthy, handsome and charismatic, Tommy Redmond Hicks’ Jamie Overstreet has presence and stability, while Lee’s Blackmon is a kind-hearted geek.
Towards the end of the film, Jamie becomes increasingly frustrated by Nola’s refusal to make up her mind and commit to a relationship, where he overpowers and sexually assaults her. In an interview with the BBC, Lee acknowledged that moment from She’s Gotta Have It as his biggest professional mistake and an incident he should have never committed to celluloid in the first place.
“My biggest regret, as far as cinema goes, is the rape scene in She’s Gotta Have It,” he said. “It was stupid. I mean, it makes light of rape”. In the decades since, Lee has voiced his disappointment at including the scene several times, something he sought to atone for when the film was remade as a Netflix series.
“People always ask me if there’s one thing I could take back, a do-over. The first thing I say is the rape scene in the original film from 1986,” he explained. “So I’ll apologize again right here. That should’ve never been in there.”
Describing it as “totally stupid”, Lee blamed its inclusion on his immaturity as a filmmaker. “I hate that I did not view rape as the vile act that it is,” he continued before stating in no uncertain terms “there will be nothing like that” in the episodic adaptation, giving him the opportunity to try and course-correct the most notable regret of his storied filmography.
She’s Gotta Have It is still lauded as an era-defining classic and the genesis of what would swiftly become Lee’s signature style of blending engaging stories, richly drawn characters, and natural situations with relevant societal and cultural themes, but that hasn’t prevented its creator from singling out a scene that continued to trouble him in the years to come.
