How do you prepare for your roles?
Sometimes you’re playing roles that are nothing like yourself. The movie I was doing before Tyler Perry’s project, I played a husband with a drug problem who was abusing his wife. For me to be able to portray that on camera, I had to do research. Maybe you know someone who’s been abused. If not, you can look at other movies to pull from there to make it as authentic as possible.
What has it been like to work with Perry?
Tyler Perry is a creative genius. We saw that from afar with what he was doing and [with] being able to create the studio and be a studio head. We see the productions and his business acumen. As an actor, once you get up close and personal [you see] his process. It’s overwhelming. I don’t mean that in a bad way. His work ethic is crazy, like I still can’t fathom that I’m doing this. He writes, produces, directs the whole thing. He was there every second of filming.
