*Tyler Perry says he hasn’t read the Variety and Hollywood Reporter reviews trashing his new film “For Colored Girls,” but he has an answer for critics in general who don’t like his work.
“What I will say to Variety, to Hollywood Reporter, to any critic is this: What I know for sure is that I did the best that I could do at this time in my life,” he told reporters in New York this week. “I’m very, very proud of it and I think it’s a powerful film. I love the story, I love the acting, I love the way it’s written, the way it’s done. So, you know, it’s okay.
Perry also points out that his also been praised by critics as well.
“The Newsweek quote was, ‘Finally, a black woman’s story has been told.’ So I’m going to focus more on the positive than on the negative,” he added.
Listen to the complete interview below.
“For Colored Girls” opens in theaters Nov. 5.
In all fairness, his pick of “supportive quotes” is as dumb as..well it’s just dumb.
The quote merely says it’s time a black woman’s story has been told. So, uhm, er, well, what exactly were the stories told in all of his other movies? It certainly wasn’t about white women and black men.
Screw the negative press! I’m going to check this out…
It hurts me to say this, but I feel Tyler Perry overall is a mediocre filmmaker at best. While Madea is a brilliant concept, I get tired quickly. A sketch is all I can take now. I have yet to see his latest effort, For Colored Girls. However, I suspect he does not have the skills to do it correctly. I am old enough to have seen the play on Broadway in its original production. Plus the PBS version. The play is one of my favorite of all time. I have a lot of fear that Perry has messed it up. I already see incorrect choices have been made. To pull this off correctly, it takes someone with the abilities that the director of “Precious” and a those that a lot of under valued directors have. They are true artists, while Perry is an ambitious “pop culture” icon. Not always a good one at that. I will see it for myself, but what was expressed in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter are the same things I have seen in Perry’s other films. When viewing one of his formulaic “Why Did I Get Married?” movies, I was SHOCKED at how bad many scenes were. This is especially unfortunate when his supporters (including the talented actors) are so biased and blind. To the point that they actually believe he is brilliant. They can not see his obvious lack of training, and what it takes to become not just a great film maker, but even a good one. To be sure, I admire and respect Perry’s accomplishments. Building a studio, breaking box office records, forcing Hollywood to take notice etc. I am THRILLED to see more talented African American actors and actresses in mainstream films. I hope it continues. However, the wrong one always gets elevated to the highest heights. There are tons of African American filmmakers out there who are leaps and bounds above Tyler Perry. Unfortunately, we live in a society where huge chunks of today’s audiences are not sophistocated, but receptive to mediocrity while shunning true art. Not just some segments of the black population, but everyone including so-called educated, high income whites. I just hope Perry’s success paves the way for filmmakers who are actually producing things of substance. I pray that one day many exceptionally talented artists of color will find a significant market and opportunity to be recognized for their talents. While also being commercially appealing. I also hope when it happens they deserve it.
i agree with a lot of what you have stated aand you stated it very eloquently I might add. I know there are many other black directors and such who are overlooked for their work but hopefuuly we will get a chance to see their films. I will still support tyler and his films he is paving the way for future black directors etc.and that is a good thing.
robertcalp, I agree with 99.9% of what you posted, my only disagreement is “Precious”……that movie stunk like three week old cheese, on a hot Alabama afternoon. I’m still gonna give you a thumbs-up.
“Unfortunately, we live in a society where huge chunks of today’s audiences are not sophistocated, but receptive to mediocrity while shunning true art.”
@robertcalp, perhaps “true art” is truly subjective. However, to many of us, our support of TP goes “beyond” certain technicalities…it’s about creating venues and entertainment for those who are/feel overlooked and neglected by the powers that be in the film industry. TP will up his game and remain true to his base audience and others who also find value in his films. Believe me it’s more than Blacks who appreciate what he has to offer at this point in his development.
Melody, that’s the reason why I support him.
I agree with what most have said, but I will take it one step further. It isn’t just today’s audiences, but the masses have never been interested in art. We tend to forget that even Shakespear or opera wasn’t always considered true art. At the end of the day it is really just a numbers game. Let’s assume that only 10% of any population is really interested in artistic entertainment; well there are over 150 million whites in this country so that leaves a market of 15 million that have an interest in more serious, artistic type films. However, there are only about 34 million blacks, which means that the serious movie market is only 3.4 million. This means that serious quality black films can’t make money on the same scale unless they are dumped down to appeal to a wider black audience or have appeal to non-black audiences.
As for TP, he has dicovered a formula that works: quality actors can divert attention away from a otherwise weak script. Personally, I would feel better if say Kasi Lemmons was directing. For Colored Girls is such a difficult work, TP probably should have served as producer, but brought someone else in to write the script and direct. Even then, I have to wonder how well it would translate when updated for 2010 and put in a modern setting. My concern is that it will come off as just another women are victims and all black men are bad movie.
@DOne, did u say Kasi Lemmons?? She is just excellent! I was in awe with for Eve’s Bayou. I would love to see more of her work and yes she could have definitely pulled it off for this film.
For as long as FCGs has been around anyone else could have tackled this subject matter if they so desired. Now that TP has taken it on, I’ve heard several folks say “so and so would have been better…”. I don’t recall hearing he was in a bidding war or wrestled it from another filmaker either so it is what it is.
Not true, Melody. Please research . Tyler Perry “wrestled” the film from Nzingha Stewart, a black female director/screenwriter, who was the first to option the rights from Shange. She wrote the original draft. She attached Angela Bassett to star and another actress (Halle?). She went to Lionsgate for backing and they sent her to Tyler Perry who instead of backing her pushed her aside and rewrote the script, directed, etc.
I have mentioned this on another thread.
He did keep her as executive producer but that’s a token position here as she wanted to write and direct it.
This is well-documented in Variety and elsewhere on the internet.
Here’s an interview with Stewart from March 2009 when she was signed to direct “For Colored Girls…” from her script:
http://21hustle.com/2009/03/1183/
Thanks, synthia. I’ll be sure to check this link but had no idea of what you mentioned. I hope he and Stewart had a strong collaboration on this project tho.