-This is amazing. So not only the film,
but you have been touring
with a Madea stage show
as sort of a farewell tour for you in character.
130 shows?
-130 shows. We're 35 in,
still sold out, 25,000, 30,000 people a week.
It's insane. -I can't even imagine.
It must be -- I mean, you've obviously had
a relationship with this character for so long.
I can't imagine what that relationship
with the audience is like.
They must be so happy to be seeing it live.
-Yeah, it's awesome. I've been doing these live shows
for about 20 years now. And we close --
Well, the week before we close, we're here at Radio City,
so it's going to be pretty, pretty amazing.
-And then you decided to wrap it up in Atlanta.
That's going to be the last one? -Yes, yes.
I wanted to just add at home, so I can wrap it up at home.
-And then, unless people are worried,
because I know you've been saying you might want to
retire the character, but Madea's family funeral,
this is not Madea's funeral. -It's not her funeral.
But that old broad is dead, man.
I'm done. I'm done. -Really?
-I'm done. I'm done, yeah.
She's been a good character, she's been a great franchise,
it's done really, really well. But, yeah, it's time.
-And why did you decide to make her last film at a funeral?
-Well, first of all, I don't want to be her age playing her,
so I said let's -- time to shut it down.
But the funeral thing is -- I've seen so much fun --
and if you ever get a chance,
please go to a black person's funeral.
Just -- even if you don't know them,
just stop by and sit in the back.
It's going to be really, really long
and you're gonna have a really --
just write down some notes. It's hysterical sometimes.
Hysterical. [ Laughter ]
-I'm happy to hear that.
-Have you ever been to a black person's funeral?
-No, but when I go, I'm going to say you sent me.
[ Laughter ] -That's exactly right.
That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
-I don't want to just show up. -Sit there and make notes, yeah.
-And -- but, you know, I heard you say you
might be willing to do a prequel.
We might see young Madea. -Yes, with a real actress.
Because I'm done.
No more pantyhose for me, brother. I'm done.
So, yeah, with a real actress playing her
from back in the '70s, I think would be a lot of fun.
-You know, I think everybody's fear
would be like how do you retire a character?
Are you worried you can't come up with another one?
You already have. In this film, we met a new one, Heathrow.
-Heathrow. Her brother. -Uncle Heathrow, her brother.
-Yeah. -And you just said
you went for it in a way only you can.
[ Laughter ] -Yep, yep, yep.
He says he's a war hero. He lost his legs in the war.
He's in a wheelchair, but the truth is,
he got shot by a gangster.
[ Laughter ]
He bought all of his war medals at Walmart.
So he was never in the war.
-All right, well, I think we will have a long --
Hopefully we'll have a long life with Heathrow, as well.
-Yes, yes, he's fun. -Do people -- I imagine --
because, again, like you said,
you decided to put Madea at a funeral.
I imagine your audience decides all the time
where they want to see Madea. Do they pitch ideas to you?
-I've heard some crazy ideas. -Yeah.
-Madea goes to England, Madea goes to Africa,
Madea goes to Wakanda. I mean, come on.
[ Laughter ]
I don't think that's going to work.
-I actually would argue that it would make a ton of money.
[ Laughter ] -No, no.
-I would check out Madea goes to Wakanda.
-I'll pass. I'll pass on it. I'll pass on it.
-You also -- in very -- I mean, I will say this
really speaks to your range that you can in the same year
play Uncle Heathrow and Colin Powell in "Vice."
-Yeah. Isn't that something? -That is a lot.
You are quite an actor. And you --
This is Adam McKay's film "Vice."
-The brilliant Adam McKay. -Brilliant Adam McKay.
And you actually reached out to Colin Powell.
-Yeah. Before I did it, I wanted to make sure it was okay.
I didn't want to just, like, you know --
If you're going to play somebody living,
you don't want to insult them. -Sure.
-So if they're dead, it's like, "Oh, well."
But when they're living, you want to be like,
"Hey, is this okay?"
And he was very gracious and sent me his book to read
and everything, so it was wonderful.
-That's really exciting. And you also --
This is really cool. You're doing --
I guess you've already shot it.
You're doing a tribute to Aretha Franklin.
-Yes. -Coming out March 10th, right?
-March 10th. March 10th. Yeah, I'm hosting, it's really great.
-That's great. -That's why I couldn't do
the Oscars, I was busy.
-Right, well I'll get back to Aretha --
You were at the Oscars. -Yeah.
-And you presented, and you made light of the fact that you --
I think it was Cinematography,
which was going to be during the commercial break.
You know, I will say for all the talk about how the Oscars
had trouble going into it,
I thought it was a really good night.
-It was a great show without a host,
and I loved it because it was shorter.
-Yeah. -Yeah, because you know,
it took about 20, 30 minutes off, not having a host.
I thought it was great. They did a great job.
-I agree. And I thought there were some really nice moments.
But this Aretha thing.
Aretha was a fan of Madea, as well?
-Yes. First time she called me,
it was like, "This Aretha Franklin."
I'm like, "Oh, my God, how are you?"
She's like, "I don't want to talk to you.
I want to talk to Madea." [ Laughter ]
I'm like, "Well, you know she's not real."
She said, "I don't care, put her on the phone."
You have to give her R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
So I said -- [ As Madea ] "Hello, hello,
how are you, Ms. Franklin? How are you doing?"
Yeah, yeah, I just went for it. Just went for it.
-And was it just wonderful to pull together --
I mean, there must have been so much to pull together
to put together an Aretha tribute.
-Well listen, Clive Davis from Arista
and J Records and all that in the past,
he was the one who pulled it all together,
and it was really fantastic. -That's great.
I can't wait to see that.
-The Grammys did it with Clive. -Okay.
-Or, no, just the Grammys. I don't want to get in trouble.
[ Laughter ]
-I think you covered it. -Everybody was there.
It was a black funeral. We all were there.
[ Laughter ] We all were there.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You know, we mentioned Madea and we mentioned the Oscars.
And you did the show... -Yeah.
-...at the Dolby Theatre.
-This was a few weeks before the Oscars.
-Okay. -I was playing my farewell tour
there, and that last show we did,
we had like 10,000 people on that Saturday show.
And I was looking at all these Oscar people on the wall.
Sean Connery with his Oscar
in these black-and-white images. They're beautiful.
So I went across the street, bought some fake Oscars,
dressed Madea up in a beautiful gown,
took a picture, black and white, and I put it up on the wall.
And I said, "By the time I come to the Oscars,
somebody is going to see this and it's going to be gone."
It was still there. -Yep, there's the photo.
-It was still there. It was still there.
[ Laughter ] Still there.
-And there's proof that it's still there.
-At the Oscars. -That's fantastic.
-I think the cleaning person is going to be in trouble.
How can you clean all these and not know?
"Something is wrong with this image here."
-I've got to say, I bet that for a lot of people,
something's very right about that image
and they have no problem with that being on the wall.
-I'll take that. -Hey, man, thank you so much
for being back. -It's always my pleasure.
-Congratulations. -Always my pleasure. Thank you.