For years, Tyler Perry has made people laugh and giggle with his Madea character, but not everybody thinks that it’s funny, including those in the entertainment industry.
In an interview with Chris Wallace on his show “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” Perry talked about his inspiration for creating Madea, and responded to comments about the negative stereotypes surrounding the character. Wallace also reminded Perry about Spike Lee’s comments in 2009 calling the character “coonery buffoonery.”
“Emasculating Black men, I’ve heard it all,” Perry said. “There’s a certain part of our society, especially Black people in the culture, that they look down on certain things within the culture.”
Perry then discussed how Madea and his movies correlate to many things in his life.
“I love the movies that I’ve done because they are the people that I grew up with that I represent,” Perry said. “I was in a masterclass for my life, so when someone says this is your harkening back to a point of our life that we don’t want to talk about it, we don’t want the world to see, you’re dismissing the stories of millions and millions of Black people.”
This isn’t the first time that Perry has responded to the criticism, especially regarding Lee’s 2009 comments. On an apperance on “60 Minutes” in 2009, Perry said “I would love to read that to my fan base. That pisses me off. It is so insulting. It’s attitudes like that that make Hollywood think that these people do not exist, and that is why there is no material speaking to them, speaking to us.”
