Tyler Perry reveals his secret to success

Madea takes a break
“Daddy’s Little Girl,” a film about a devoted single father (Elba) fighting to regain custody of his kids and dealing with the complexities of falling in love with a woman (Union) in a much higher tax bracket (they got issues!), represents the first time Perry hasn’t slipped into a dress, or appeared in one of his films.

“Madea is on vacation,” Perry said with a smile. “She’ll come back in two or three years. I just felt like I was over-exposed. I was everywhere. With the two movies, the book (“Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings”) and the plays and everything, I had done every talk show there is to do. I needed a moment to just get away from it and get behind the camera and do a positive story celebrating black fathers who do right by their kids. That’s not something you ever see on screen.”

But will the absence of his iconic alter ego affect his box office receipts? Cannon doesn’t think so.

“There’s such confidence and faith and so much brand loyalty in Tyler Perry that they’ve come to expect a film of quality, a film of integrity and something new and daring which is what ‘Daddy’s Little Girls’ is,” Cannon said. “It’s a celebration of black fatherhood. Madea will be back and when she does it will be a major event.

But, while Madea may be on an extended holiday Perry certainly is not.

Next month he’ll start shooting his next feature, “Why Did I Get Married?” He’ll start another film, “The Jazzman’s Blues” in June. Additionally, he’s scheduled to shoot 100 episodes of his syndicated TV show “House of Payne” before the end of the year, he’s also working on another sitcom “Meet the Browns” and he’s also penning another book.

That pace is beyond prolific. But again, Perry feels that it’s all a part of what he’s been called to do.

“I’m very, very careful about the Tyler Perry brand,” he said. “I get a lot of offers to do other things, but I’m very careful about this audience and my relationship with them.

There’s a level of expectation. Everyone else is the sex and the booty shaking and the this and the that and the niggas and the hos and the bitches. It’s very important for me to stay away from that. If everybody else is doing it, why do it? Everybody else is doing it and they’re doing it well, so let me show that there’s a whole other side to black people that most of the world does not get to see.”

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