Everyone’s beloved grandmother is back and despite having a new home at Netflix, she’s the same wisdom-toting, quick to call a spade a spade, character that the world continues to fall in love with.
Tyler Perry had no idea what was headed toward society when he made the decision to retire the beloved character of Madea, who made her first appearance in his 1999 play, I Can Do Bad All By Myself. Fans flocked to theaters to bid the rebellious grandmother goodbye in the 2019 film, A Madea Family Funeral, which was followed by a sold-out farewell tour in what most thought would be the character’s final appearance. Now, just two years later, she’s back, which Perry says was necessary with all that’s currently going on in the world.
“I gotta tell you, just all the pain and suffering that’s going on in the world, the pandemic, the social and civil unrest, elections, everybody just seemed to be so angry,” he recalled to Shadow and Act in a recent interview about Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming.
“I wanted to do something to make people laugh. So what do I have to make people laugh? Madea and Joe so here we go," Perry said.
Like most of us, Madea appears to come back a bit more evolved, but for loyal fans who have been rocking with the characters since Perry’s plays, he says Netflix gave him full reign to bring the character we know and love to the streaming service.
“I wanted to show her more like she’s been in the plays, how people know her in the play,” he shared. “So this is more of what was on the stage, than it has been on film because on film, I was limited to a certain amount of screens and had to go to DVD and make its way through everything, but here on Netflix, it’s everywhere at once so I could just let it be all that it’s going to be.”
Although it’s a comedy with the intention of making people laugh and forget about the problems they may be facing, Perry says that he did not want to shy away from shedding light on the very real situations that people are still up against, such as the pandemic and police brutality.
“What was important to me is I don't want to make fun of them as much as I wanted to have Madea have an opinion on all of these things,” he shared.
“I wanted her to be able to say it because so many people are thinking it, but everyone’s afraid to say it,” he continued. “So here’s a moment where we got to do it and Madea allows us to say what we can see and say what we think.”
A Madea Homecoming is now streaming on Netflix Netflix.
Watch the full interview below:
