Tyler Perry hosted the grand opening of his movie studios this week in Atlanta, Georgia, and made history in the process.
The Tyler Perry Studios are, simply, huge. At 330 acres with 12 sound stages, Perry’s lot is bigger than Disney, Warner Bros. and Paramount’s studios in Burbank, California, combined.
The actor, writer, comedian and filmmaker made history with the opening of his studios, as the first black American to own a major film studio outright.
You can watch him talk to CBS This Morning’s Gayle King about it here:
Guests at the grand opening of the studios included Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson and Beyoncé.
However, despite the new studios, and the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame he just received, Perry believes Hollywood doesn’t ‘get’ him, and the industry ignores him and his work.
As he told CBS News:
I clearly believe that I’m ignored in Hollywood, for sure. And that’s fine. I get it.
My audience and the stories that I tell are African-American stories specific to a certain audience, specific to a certain group of people that I know, that I grew up [with], and we speak a language. Hollywood doesn’t necessarily speak the language. A lot of critics don’t speak that language. So, to them, it’s like, ‘What is this?’
But I know what I do is important. I know what I do touches millions of people around the world. I know how important every word, every joke, every laugh [is]. I know what that does for the people where I come from and the people that I’m writing for. So, yeah, I get that.
King also mentioned, however, that Perry has been ‘criticised, in some cases, by your fellow colleagues,’ and asked whether building the huge studio was ‘validation’. To which Perry replied: ‘No. Not at all.’
He continued:
You know, if they get it, that’s great. If they don’t, I really feel it from the bottom of my heart, if they get it, great. If they don’t, then that’s fine, too.
I know for a fact that when I drive in through these gates, onto this 330 acres and see these 12 sound stages, and see the highway sign that says ‘Tyler Perry Studios’ as you’re making to the exit in here, as I come in here and I see these hundreds of people working, these black and brown – I’ve been on sets where I’ve been the only black face on, only black face, as recently as 2019 going, ‘Where are the black people in this movie?’ Back behind the camera? So, when I come to work here and every black person that comes to work here they go, ‘Oh my God, it’s heaven. Here we are. We’re represented.’ Where everybody’s represented. LGBTQ’s represented. Black, white, gay, straight, whatever. We’re all represented, working hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm.
So, what I know about what I’m doing is, any doubters, just come take a visit and walk these streets, see these people, see these underdogs and you tell me what I do don’t matter.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.