Tyler Perry shared polarizing, eye-opening sentiments during a sit-down with twenty-time Grammy-winning artist Kirk Franklin, Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks founder Derrick Hayes, and rapper Jeezy on an episode of Den of Kings.
The billionaire actor and studio executive shared that he draws a solid line in the sand when it comes to helping his family and sharing his immense wealth.
“I fired my own aunt. She said she wanted a job—she was always calling me up for money and I would send her the money,” Perry said. I said ‘Listen, I want to help you build this thing. I don’t want to be welfare to you, let me give you this job.’ I gave her a job to help her — and she didn’t want to show up. I’m not going to handicap people I love,” Perry said.
Though the other men in the conversation seemed to understand Perry’s decision, the internet quickly made the clip a discussion piece with some people feeling like the Madea movie mastermind has a few dollars to spare and others echoing his sentiment that he doesn’t owe anyone a handout. Perry has said in the past that his most popular character—the gun-toting matriarch and comedic relief—was fashioned after his aunt, we can only hope it’s not the one he fired. Whew, chile.
Perry also revealed to the panel that he helped fellow filmmaker Ryan Coogler land a landmark deal for his critically-acclaimed film Sinners. Coogler revealed that he would retain full ownership over his $360 million feature in 25 years along with first-dollar gross points and it seems we have Perry to thank for giving him the game.
“When this deal with Ryan Coogler – everybody’s talking about the Sinners deal. ‘Oh my god, he got this amazing deal,’” Perry said around the 21-minute mark in the interview. “Listen, I called that brother up, as I did a lot of them. I called him up after Black Panther and I said, ‘Listen, here is how you do it.’ I applaud him, man. I’m excited for him because that’s what it’s about. Holding on to the ownership.”
Coogler never revealed that he’d had a conversation with Perry, but now we know. The Straw director also spoke about being underestimated in Hollywood and how it worked to his advantage, even in the present day, after all of his successes.
“These are the people who are like ‘oh that’s just something than Black people like.’ They thought Diary of a Mad Black Woman would only do $5 million total, it opened at $20 million. When you’re underestimated, you can make the best deals,” he said. “That’s why I tell people don’t go in a room with your resume trying to impress anybody. See what deal you can make, go under first. I am still fighting for budgets, I am still fighting for looks that my white counterparts. in this business have. I have a friend who gets $27 million to write an episode of television, I’m barely getting four.”
