Taking off The Madea Costume, For Real

So, check it out. I'm a fan of Tyler Perry. I respect his grind, how he came from nothing and became something; I'm a fan of his plays and the majority of his movies (even though most of them do have relatively the same plot); but most of all, I respect what he does for black people.

I know a lot of people (mostly black people) who also are Tyler Perry fans. I know a lot of people (mostly black people) who are not fans of Tyler Perry, and I'm cool with that. Opponents say that every movie he makes plays deeply into black stereotypes, and I understand that, but I look at it as Perry trying to connect with black people on a level that most will understand. And when he makes a movie he has one goal in mind: make people leave the theater feeling good and with a smile on their face. If you don't leave a Tyler Perry movie feeling this way, then his movies are not for you.

With that being said, when I went to see I Can Do Bad All By Myself about a month ago, I caught a preview of the upcoming movie, Precious, a movie which Perry has some ties into of which I am currently unclear. I personally felt the movie took a more angry approach than the typical Tyler Perry movie, tackling things such as child abuse, rape, etc. In the wake of this film gaining publicity, Tyler Perry reportedly sent an email to fans Monday revealing previously unknown facts about his childhood:

"In an email to fans that has Perry's admirers buzzing, he recounts various examples of terrible childhood mistreatment - from his father beating him senseless to a neighbor woman molesting him at age 10.

Even his grandmother, the mother of his hated father, became a threat when she objected to his weekly allergy shot, he recalls."

"I'm tired of holding this in. I don't know what to do with it anymore, so, I've decided to give some of it away," he wrote in Saturday's email, which was also posted on his website.

He recounted being beaten by his father for reading books and filching cookies.

"He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back. To this day, I don't know what would make a person do something like that to a child," Perry wrote.

I don't know about you, but hearing and reading this for myself helped me understand why Perry's films and plays focus so much on perseverance. People say so much to writers to simply "write what you know" and this shows that Perry knows a lot about trials and tribulations leading to triumph... and apparently millions of dollars. Tyler Perry's highest grossing film to date, Madea Goes To Jail grossed over $109 million. Even his lowest grossing film to date, Daddy's Little Girls grossed over $31 million.

I've been very blessed in my life, but looking at that type of money kind of makes me wish I had a rougher childhood. Kind of. Precious drops November 6.

You can read the entire article about Tyler Perry here.

~Trufe