What do Oprah and Beyonce have to do with a smart and sassy grandma played by Tyler Perry? And wait,
there’s a formula behind the hilarity?! Brace yourselves…
this is the untold truth of Madea, part two!
Tyler Perry's birth name was Emmitt Perry Jr., and he was born in New Orleans on September 13,
1969. He had a rough childhood, with a physically and mentally abusive father. This ultimately lead
Emmitt to change his name to Tyler when he was 16 to separate himself from his father.
Tyler’s difficult childhood didn’t end there. He also was sexually abused as a child by
several neighbors. Things were so bad, the multi-talented star attempted suicide as a teen.
As a young adult, Perry heard future pal and collaborator Oprah Winfrey say on a 1992 episode
of her show that writing about one's traumas could be cathartic. He admitted he didn't even
know at the time what the word cathartic meant, but he ended up doing just that.
He worked on various versions of his first play, I Know I've Been Changed,
which talked about childhood abuse, for six years and even lived in his car at
times before it finally became a hit in 1998. Perry told Essence in 2009:
"Can you imagine a six-foot-five man sleeping in a Geo Metro?"
Everything would come full circle, of course, when Winfrey interviewed Perry while in
character as Madea in 2006. Later down the line, Perry partnered with Oprah Winfrey.
Now his comedy, The Paynes is showing on her OWN network.
It all indeed has come full circle for this multi-talented star.
When Tyler Perry started out as a playwright in the mid-'90s, he wrote plays that had music
and melodrama, but no Madea. He did act in the plays, most notably as Joe,
the man who would end up being Madea's brother, until he came up with her character.
She appeared in his third play, 2000's I Can Do Bad All by Myself. Originally,
Madea was only supposed to be in the play for five minutes, but when the lead actor of the
show didn't turn up, Perry told Oprah Winfrey in an interview that he expanded the character.
Madea's official debut was in Chicago's Regal Theater, Perry revealing with Winfrey:
"Five minutes before the show, I put on the costume and stood
at the mirror for the first time. I'm saying, ‘Damn are you really going to
do this?’ Then the show started and I had no choice — they pushed me out onstage."
The Madea we all know and love today
was a little different in these very first performances, however. Perry explained:
"She didn't talk very loud and her voice was much deeper and she sat in one spot the whole time."
But when he finally stood up and moved around the stage,
the audience laughed, and he got a "standing ovation" at the end.
The roots of the tall, sassy ex-stripper grandma came from Tyler Perry's abusive
childhood. He shared with Essence that his mother took him to Lane
Bryant and beauty parlors to keep him away from his father's wrath.
It’s because of this that Tyler saw adult women in a way that many children don't. Perry added:
"The nurturing part of Madea comes from my mother, who would open the doors of our home
to you no matter who you were. My aunt inspired the pistol-packing, the wig and the voice.
She over-pronounces her words and puts an r on everything to make it sound proper."
Madea resonated with his mostly African-American audience, Perry noted,
because she reminded them of their own relatives.
Eddie Murphy's 2000 film Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps also influenced the role.
Not only did Murphy play a woman, but he did multiple roles in the movie.
Similar to Murphy’s involvement in Nutty Professor 2, Perry would ultimately play
multiple roles, including Madea's brother, Joe, and her nephew, Brian.
Tyler Perry wrote, directed, and starred in several plays featuring Madea in the early
2000s that were huge hits on the urban theater circuit, including Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
It wasn’t easy, though. When he tried to get Diary of a Mad Black Woman made into a film,
he ran into resistance. Perry told ABC News in 2005:
"I went to a big studio, and the guy tells me Black people who go to church
don't go to movies. That's what the guy said to me."
Also, Madea wasn't a known character outside the African-American community,
so critics didn't quite know what to make of her. Roger Ebert was one of these critics.
In his review for Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Ebert made this complaint:
"[Madea] brings the movie to a halt every time she appears."
So much for that: The 2005 movie cost $5 million to make, grossed $50 million,
and launched Madea into the mainstream. Most of the Tyler Perry films starring the
matriarch have a certain formula. Although Madea's name is usually in the title,
she is not in every scene. There is also usually some sort of message behind the comedy.
2016's Boo! A Madea Halloween is ostensibly a comedic horror film, but it's really about
Madea's nephew being too weak with his teenage daughter, and Madea straightening things out.
Earlier romantic movies like Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family
Reunion are about good women being treated terribly by abusive husbands,
with Madea making things right. Perry said in a 2016 interview with the Los Angeles Times:
"If you look at everything I do — even in 'Boo,' there's a message, and it's always 'faith, family,
forgiveness.' That's the greatest gift that I've been given. I can get a message to the very people
I grew up with, the millions who love what I do. I can get a message to them when others can't."
Even though Tyler Perry has done other non-Madea movies, and earned great reviews acting in movies
like 2014's Gone Girl, Madea is the role he's best known for. Just 'cause it’s his best known-role
doesn’t mean it’s his favorite. The costume is very hot, and it hurts to talk in a
higher-pitched voice for hours at a time. Perry told a reporter for Creative Loafing in 2011:
"As much as I hate playing the character, it works pretty well."
When the actor-writer was asked why, he said:
"Oh my God. Being in Georgia in a fat suit, and wig and makeup,
in the middle of summer? The physicality of it is no fun."
Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that the star much prefers playing Madea on stage than on
screen. When asked his preference in February 2022, Perry told Vibe:
"Oh, it's totally the stage for me. That stage, that give and take.
Now, I can tell you that's done. I really don't think I'm ever going to do another tour again, but
that being on stage and back and forth with the people in the audience, that's really powerful."
Tyler Perry has an empire now, with his own Atlanta-based movie studio,
thanks mostly to the ongoing success and popularity of his Madea character.
The latest iteration of the studio is on a decommissioned army base. How big is the studio?
According to a video from Architectural Digest where Tyler did a walk-through, it's on roughly
330 acres. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Perry had this to say about the studio:
"Sometimes I drive around here by myself and think, 'Is this too much,
or is this what I'm supposed to do?' The answer is obvious. When this fell into my lap, I said,
'I have to do this.' This is the endgame." Tyler Perry was ready to retire Madea for
good in 2019 after 20 years of playing the character. At the time, he was about to
turn 50 and apparently ready to move on as an actor. He revealed to The Hollywood Reporter:
"I don't want to be her age playing her, so it was time to shut it down and move on. I've
got some other things I want to do, and in this next 50, I'm going to do something different."
While Perry has gone on to do different things, it appears he never wanted to
completely close the door on Madea by killing her off. Perry told The Hollywood Reporter:
"It's always going to be open-ended because what you don't want to do
is murder a family member. And a lot of people feel like she's a family member."
Yet Perry did feel that, at the time, he did all he could with the character. He explained to CNN,
"She's also run out of things to say in my point of view. So if there's something else
for her to say maybe one day she'll return. But right now? Nah, I think I’m done."
Perry was happy to leave things on a positive note though, pointing out:
"So many people have loved her. It's been a great franchise."
"It's been a really, really good run. People love the character."
By 2022, Tyler Perry felt the world could use some Madea to lighten things up a bit.
He explained that was why he made the Netflix movie, A Madea Homecoming, telling Collider:
"I was tired of doing the character. It had been a good run. But looking at the state of
the world and everything that was happening, I wanted to do something to make people laugh."
"Let something jump up out of this damn box. You got knocked the hell out!"
Perry apparently realized that the best way he could do something about that
was through the Madea movies, adding:
"I was like, 'What do I have in my toolbox to make people laugh?'
It's clearly Madea, so I just wanted to bring that out."
It seems Perry's whole goal for the Madea films is to bring people some much-needed joy.
While it's clear that the Madea films are comedies, creator Tyler Perry has also used
the character to touch on important issues. Perry told Collider that when doing so he's not "poking
fun" at issues, but instead "highlighting them" by using laughter. He continued,
"I just think that so much is plaguing us as a society, we need to at least address some of it.
I thought, 'Hey, maybe this is a way that Madea could at least be talking about these things.'"
For A Madea Homecoming, in particular, Perry incorporated an LGBTQ+ storyline to promote
inclusion. He told Entertainment Weekly why that was important to him, saying,
"I just think that if everything gets accepted in love,
then you get a chance to see the person for who they are rather than what you think they are."
He explained on The Kelly Clarkson Show, saying:
"We're bombarded with all the negativity, I wish there was more balance of the positivity,
so people can start to feel good — that's why I wanted to bring Madea back."
Madea can seemingly do it all, even portray Beyoncé, which is exactly what she did at the
end of 2022's A Madea Homecoming. Tyler Perry, as Madea, channeled the music superstar's 2018
Coachella concert with a performance of their own. Perry told Entertainment Weekly:
"I thought, 'There is no way that I can call this
movie 'Homecoming' and not do some sort of homage to the Queen B.'"
Of course, Perry did get Beyoncé's approval beforehand, as he revealed to Collider:
"The first person I called was her and said, 'Hey, take a look at this. How do you feel about this.'
She laughed herself to silly, so I thought, 'Okay, we gotta right thing to do.'"
It seems that if Madea can impress Beyoncé, then she can do anything,
which is pretty much what Perry has done with her throughout the franchise. Despite Perry's
past attempts to retire Madea, audiences seemingly aren't ready to give up their favorite grandma.
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