Tyler Perry wanted to “modernize” thrillers with his new Netflix film.
The 54-year-old actor wrote the script for Mea Culpa, which stars former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland as a legal defense attorney who defends an artist accused of murder. The filmmaker recalled watching many films of its kind with his mother and admitted that he was “ready” to take on this project.
“My mom and I used to watch all those thrillers back in the day, man, I used to love those movies and I thought, let’s modernize [the] story. Let’s tell a story from a different point of view, right? And when its character, Mea started showing up in my head as she was telling me different things, and that’s how it works for me,” Perry told Screen Rant.
“The characters show up, I start to write, and it leads to all these different pages. I never know where it’s going when I start, but by the time I got to the end, I was like, Oh yeah, I’m ready for this one,” he added.
Perry explained that the film needs to be watched several times to fully understand what is going on as he teased that surprise twists will only make sense upon a second or third viewing.
“So, you have to watch two or three times to catch what’s happening because you’ll see that in the very beginning, you’re being told everything as you go. But by the time you get to the end, you’re like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t see that coming.’ But if you watch it again, it’s like, Oh, that’s why she did that. That’s why she said that. That’s what that look is about. So yeah, I’m dropping crumbs all the way,” he said.
Mea Culpa will begin streaming on Netflix on Feb. 23.
