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In a few sentences, Perry discussed the decades-long road to the release of “A Jazzman’s Blues,” a Netflix drama that weaves a murder mystery and love story into a larger story about racism in the 20th-century Deep South. He appeared in an episode of the inaugural season of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, a new series on CNN and HBO Max. (CNN and HBO Max share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
“I’ve been very intentional about my positioning as far as the industry,” Perry told Wallace. “I knew my audience would support me and Madeas and Why Did I Get Married? and all the big broader comedies. But that’s what I’ve held on to for so long because I’ve been waiting for the right time.”
The experience of making “A Jazzman’s Blues,” which he wrote and directed, was unique from his other projects, which he said “always felt like work.” That film, which stars rising stars Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer, “was just love,” he said.
“Every element, everything you touched, from the sets to the trees to the location – it all speaks to me,” he said. “And it was more than I ever imagined when I wrote it 27 years ago.”
The project is deeply personal to Perry, touching on colorism rooted in his own experiences.
“When I started writing the character of Bayou, played by Joshua Boone, his father despised him [and it] one kind of led me to my own father and some of the problems my father had with me was because I was a brown child. His favorite child was a very beautiful child. My dad grew up in the Jim Crow South and they did a lot of things. So there was this mentality that the lighter your skin, the better you were, and that lived on and lives on today.”
“I love the movies I’ve made because they’re the people I grew up with that I’m representing,” he said. “What’s important to me is that I honor the people who came and taught and made me who I am.”
Although proud of Madea, Perry has trouble watching clips of herself in Madea drag. He flinched when Wallace shared footage from past Madea films. (Wallace, for his part, said “Madea’s Family Reunion” was “brilliant.”) Perry said he “always felt extremely uncomfortable” in the thick suit he wore to play her, but as the play grew of the character, the public’s demand for more Madea also grew.
“The audience won’t let it go,” he said. “Even the last time I did it I said, ‘I’m out, I’m not doing it again.’ And then the world turns upside down and we have a new president. So I wanted to make people laugh… But the moment people stop coming to see her, that old woman is dead. She’s dead for sure.”
Perry backed off when Wallace asked him about Madea’s future: “My mom told me to keep Madea around before she died,” he said. “So as long as people want to see it, (Madea) will be around.”
“Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” airs Fridays on HBO Max and airs Sundays at 7pm ET on CNN.
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