A Jazzman’s Blues was the first screenplay that Perry ever wrote. He penned the script in the ’90s, and though it was bought in 2006, the project never came together until now. “The landscape never agreed to it,” he said. “I wrote it in 1995 and waited for the right time to do it. I never figured out when was the right time because I was building the brand and doing the things that I knew my audience wanted. My focus was always making sure we had a hit. Because, as a Black person, it could change your whole career if you have a flop. But watching what’s happening now, many people in politics want to rewrite Black people’s history, marginalize it, change it, and water it down. I thought, ‘Here’s the time to tell the story.’”

However, when it came time for him to cast the project, he knew he wanted to share his platform with newcomers. “If you look at my whole career with the people that I work with, it’s always been people that a lot of people didn’t know at the time but have gone on to become pretty big stars,” he explained. “Huge stars. Viola Davis. Idris [Elba], Sofia Vergara, I could go on and on about the names, but having these two people in The Jazzman’s Blues that people have not seen yet, I think it allows you to tell the story and not have to get past the hugeness of it after it’s done.”