The mastermind behind 17 feature films, 20 stage plays, seven television shows, a New York Times bestselling book, Tyler has built an empire that has attracted audiences and built communities from the Tyler Perry Studios home base in Atlanta, Georgia, throughout the world. Celebrated “among the pantheon of today’s greatest cinematic innovators,” his unique blend of spiritual hope and down-home humor continues to shape his inspiring life story, connecting with fans across the globe and always leaving space to dream. Tyler Perry recently released ‘A Madea Homecoming’, exclusively on Netflix, and Linda Ochugbua, our movie and film enthusiast, had a chance to speak with Tyler himself for the BusinessDay Weekender.
Why did you decide to release your latest movie, A Madea Homecoming, on Netflix rather than going to the cinema?
For years, I have been in theatres across North America, and I wanted to allow the world to see this because this pandemic is global and so many people are struggling, so what better platform than Netflix because it is all around the world. Everybody can see it all at once. So that was one of the main reasons I love working with them because they have a great team of people, a very diverse group of people, and I want to be a part of them for that.
The world has come to see a lot of Madea movies; what should we expect next. Is Madea coming to Africa or going to Europe the next time?
Listen, I would love to go to Europe, start in Ireland and then end up in Africa and have something great. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens next. I mean, she’s got to get out of America and see some other things.
The movie is full of twists and turns that many did not see coming, talk to us about that…
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I love to twist the plot up a bit in many movies, so people think it’s one way. It throws you off, so you are not just going on the same predictable rides, and that’s another reason why I want to bring Brendan in to have his family come in from Ireland and come in and be a part of this and to throw the whole world into tops and toppies and to have them both experiencing the same thing and realizing how similar they are as people. The real secret of drama is to put obstacles in acting, and the way they handle that makes good drama and good comedy. So, she’s able to learn the form of comedy through great drama, and that’s where you get the plot or twist in the story, and I think the twist in the story was necessary to take the audience on a bit of a roller coaster.
After A Madea Homecoming, what can you expect from Tyler Perry in 2022?
I have another movie called Algeria’s men blues coming on Netflix later about a jazz singer in the 1940s, a very different film from anything I’ve done. I’m excited, and I’m with Madea right now, so we will focus on Madea and get through this one thing. I’ve often worked with journalists to promote the current thing you are doing; they always ask you what you are doing next. I can’t remember what I did last, never mind what I’m going to do next, so the answer to what we are going to do next is I don’t know.
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