BEHIND THE MUSIC
THE IMPRESSIVE — AND SURPRISING — DIRECTORS HE WORKED WITH ON HIS MUSIC VIDEOS
SPIKE LEE
MONEY DON’T MATTER 2 NIGHT (1992) Fitting with the song’s moral message, Spike Lee intercuts footage of an impoverished African-american family with archive material of 20th-century depressions, recessions, starving children, Donald Trump strutting into the Trump Taj Mahal casino, and George Bush Snr. playing golf. Prince didn’t want to appear in it, and Lee never showed him a treatment.
ICE CUBE
LOVE SIGN (1994) “I did it when I was trying to get my feet wet in directing,” said Ice Cube, who made The Players Club four years later. “It was cool to get him to act a little bit.” Cube had Prince play a DJ who stops an assassin (Nona Gaye) from killing him by making a love sign with his hand. She ends up in his bubble bath.
ANTOINE FUQUA
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (1994) An affectionate tribute to women, with a selection of them sitting on a couch watching their achievements on a screen while Prince performs in a red doily. Fuqua had been in Paisley Park for a day discussing ideas with Prince; the singer then phoned him at 2am, saying, “It’s the boss. I’m ready to shoot now.” Fuqua scrambled a crew together and shot it that night.
SALMA HAYEK
TE AMO CORAZÓN (2005) Hayek had directed a TV movie, The Maldonado Miracle, in 2003, and Prince was encouraging her to direct again when he hired her for this. They filmed it in Marrakesh, where Hayek shot Prince reading a Spanish-english dictionary and playing guitar while ladies do sexy trapezing above him. Prince called Hayek “the most thoughtful, attentive director I have ever worked with”.
GEORGE MILLER
THE SONG OF THE HEART (2006) Prince wrote The Song Of The Heart for Miller’s Happy Feet, and the video is a montage of moments from the film. Miller initially approached Prince to get his permission to have Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman sing Kiss in the film, then asked Prince for a new song, which the singer agreed to do after watching it at Paisley Park.