Secrets Behind The Making Of "A Thin Line Between Love and Hate"

An urban answer to Fatal Attraction, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate served as a cautionary tale for men who were out here wyling when it comes to the ladies. It’s not smart to be reckless out here. You know the plot, you gasped and held your breath as you thought Martin–Darnell– was going to lose his life and you rooted for he and Regina King to work it out. But we bet you didn’t know these behind the scenes secrets. Check them out on the following pages.

Martin Lawrence’s Directorial Debut

After starring in several hit movies including House Party and Bad Boys, and of course his uber successful sitcom, “Martin,” Lawrence felt it was time to step behind the camera lense. For A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, he co-wrote, along with Bentley Kyle Evans, Kenny Buford and Kim Bass, produced, starred in and directed this film.

Response to Waiting to Exhale

Though most of us loved Waiting to Exhale, it didn’t sit too well with the men folks who felt it portrayed them in a very negative light.  And the producers of this movie, lauded A Thin Line, as a response to Terry McMillan’s book turned blockbuster. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Doug McHenry, a producer said,

“This is the male side to the ‘Waiting to Exhale’ coin. We focus on another dimension of African-American relationships, and intentionally move away from the exploitative and violent stereotypes that have depicted our everyday lives up to now. This film is a kind of a blue-collar but balanced response to Waiting to Exhale (1995), in the sense that Waiting to Exhale presented all women as saints and all men as sinners. In our film you have all different kinds of women; you have a class distinction between the men and the women.”

Does this strike anyone else as  a nice way of saying there are crazy women out here too?!

The Message

But unlike his fellow producer, Lawrence took a more responsible approach to the overall message of the film. In the same article with The Baltimore Sun, Lawrence said:

“With all the fun, laughter and sexiness, it’s still a film with a message. It’s saying to men and women that relationships are important, and it’s time to be more responsible about hurting the people you care about,” said Mr. Lawrence, 30, who recently married and has a 2-month-old daughter.”

Budget

This movie cost $8 million dollars to make. And though, according to IMDB, it got off to a slow start, grossing only $147,500 during its opening weekend, it eventually went on to earn over $33 million.

Regina King

Regina King revealed that during the entire filming of the movie, she was pregnant with her son Ian, but decided not to tell anyone. She kept this secret until filming wrapped.

Bobby Brown

With his wife starring in hit movies left and right, Bobby wanted to get in on the action. He played the role of Tee in the movie and it was all a part of his master plan to become, in his words, the Mike Tyson of the entertainment industry. Though many of us looked at Brown in the role and thought it wasn’t a far cry from his real life persona, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer he was nothing like Tee.

“I don’t try to talk to women. I ain’t got no rap, ain’t got no use for it. I’m married. I ain’t got no use for it.” He said Tee is the ultimate knucklehead.

And seeing that the movie was a critique of the movie his wife, Whitney Houston, starred in, the newspaper decided to get Brown’s thoughts on Waiting to Exhale. He said, “It was cute.”

Sly shade.

There was even more controversy surrounding this Waiting to Exhale movie. Apparently, Bobby was also mad that Whitney took a meeting about the film without him. And in response, he drove to Boston in her Bentley. But he didn’t even make it out of New Jersey, before everything went left. He was with his sister and former bodyguard, Steven Sealy, who was engaged to his sister. They were sitting outside of the Roxbury nightclub when Sealy was shot in the head and killed. Bobby was uninjured physically but he had a nervous breakdown shortly afterward.

Lynn Whitfield and the Oranges

Remember the scene where Lynn Whitfield beats herself in the face with a bag of oranges? It may seem like a stretch but this was actually art imitating life. Whitfield shared how she came up with the idea on The Rickey Smiley Morning show. 

“My father was a dentist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and he told me that story once about one of his patients who had done that. So I went to Martin and I said ‘I heard this… how would it be if I just took a bag of oranges and beat myself.’ And he said, “Yeah and then you can walk over to the cabinet and slam…” 

They were real oranges?

They were but you do a stage slap.”

Roger Troutman The Music

For the movie’s soundtrack, which ended up coming in at number 22 on the Billboard 200, and number 5 on the R&B/Hip Hop charts, Martin Lawrence tapped Roger Troutman. Initially he was supposed to just do one song called, “Chocolate City,” after the name of the club Darnell owned. But the role expanded. In an interview with Funk U Magazine, he explained:

“Then they asked me to do the cover song with a group called H-Town. So I did a remake of ‘Thin line between love & hate’ with H-Town & Shirley Murdock. And that’s just been released in the States, and I understand that it ‘s only been out a week & it’s selling like mad, so it seems like it’s gonna be a big hit. And once I did these two songs, the producers asked me to score the whole movie. You know the dramatic parts & stuff… (He starts singing) which is a great challenge. And we just finished that, & Martin Lawrence is very happy with that. So that was the history of what’s happening now.”

Negative Reviews

When this movie came out, the critics certainly weren’t kind. In fact, a writer for Entertainment Weekly, wrote this scathing review: 

“Before you buy into this crude, foulmouthed ego trip (story by Martin Lawrence, screenplay cowritten by Martin Lawrence, starring Martin Lawrence, and directed by Martin Lawrence), please consider these alternative activities: (1) Revisit Fatal Attraction, since that’s the superior model on which this lazy story — about a woman (Lynn Whitfield) who turns murderous-crazy on a slick playboy (Martin) after he seduces her and leaves her — is based; (2) see Waiting to Exhale, since the producers of Thin Line have the chutzpah to suggest that this vulgar, misogynist ”comedy” is the ”male side of the Exhale coin”; (3) listen to the original 1971 recording of the great, bitter R&B song from which the movie steals its title, sung by the Persuaders, or the wailing 1984 remake by the Pretenders; (4) alphabetize your CD collection, write a letter to your senator, run an errand for an old person, or give your hair a deep conditioning.”

Yikes.

But despite the negativity, the movie became a cult classic in the urban community. We still ride for it.

Were you a fan of A Thin Line Between Love and Hate?