Tyler Perry Has Some Words for His Black Critics

In a recent interview, Tyler Perry explains why he feels people need to see the bigger picture when it comes to Madea.

Here’s an excerpt from his interview with Ebony Magazine:

There’s no doubt that Madea movies have a built-in fan base—A Madea Christmas grossed $53 million at the box office, after all. But the uber-successful filmmaker hasn’t built his fortune without his share of criticism for donning the dress and his portrayal of Black folks in general in his films throughout his meteoric rise. To those critics, Perry’s clap back game is strong.

“I do this because the audience loves it and also it has been a great help in allowing me get to the goal of the success that I’ve been looking for. Too many people spend too much time looking at the small part of it rather than looking at the big picture and that’s been a lot of especially people of color, Black people,” he said. “We spend too much time looking at the small and the immediate and not looking at the big picture or working toward an end game.”

For Perry it was never about wearing the dress, but what “the dress” was actually building. Through his films and television work, he’s accomplished something no other African American television producer/filmmaker has ever done.

“The end game was owning the studio and hiring thousands of people and while everybody else is talking about diversity, I’m actually making something happen. If you look at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) reporting that one-fourth of all diversity in cable television was because of me, one man. How could 25 percent be because of one man? Well, the reason is I’m not sitting around focusing talking about a damn dress. I’m making things change and making things happen.”