Tyler Perry has earned $130 million dollars between May 2010 and May 2011, which ranks him as the highest-earning man in entertainment for that time period. Perry can do it all; he acts, directs and produce his own play and films. Despite critics who constantly bash him for his movies and role of “Madea”; calling his movies “buffoonery” and a wrong depiction of the black culture yet Tyler rises ahead.
In addition to his plays, Tyler has produced six blockbuster movies, including the oscar award winning film “Precious” in 2010, along with two hit tv series, House of Payne and Meet the Browns; grossing 500 million dollars in sales to date.
Tyler Perry was also honored by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network earlier this week, and during his speech he addresses his critics:
Perry accusing his critics trying to remove themselves from their roots.
“I stayed with who we are, and what I wish I could get us to understand as a people is that instead of getting your education and running from us, you need to ground and root yourself in who we are. Every other culture in this country knows the value of us as black people but we don’t know it ourselves,” he said.
“Somebody said to me about the ‘House of Payne,’ ‘Why do you have fat black people on television?’ Because there are fat black people in the world. It’s not a stereotype. This is who we are, we need to stop running from our parents and our grandparents and our uncles, we need to stop running from them and embrace them.”
Perry response to his Madea character
“Madea is silly, but my films have important messages.”I have the ear of the people, and I would be a fool to walk away from the gift that God has given me because somebody out there, a few people out there, have a problem with it,” he said.
Perry has restored Black Entertainment in Hollywood and should not be apologetic for it. Yes, his movies may not speak truth of every black household it speaks for many; some of us “proper folks” is just too embarrassed to say so. Keep doing your thing Perry.