By: debbie lynn elias
Be it for whatever reason, over the past 100 years, there have been more than a few times when a director or cast member have not had a pleasant moviemaking experience together. One of the most famous artistic disputes that blended disputes over poor material with business inequality involved Bette Davis and her not only breaking a contract, but leaving a studio. In the past, when artistic disputes arose, but for a few instances like Davis, they were generally kept quiet with little fanfare. However, thanks to the explosion of social media, in recent years, those disputes and disagreements often go quickly public. Yet, no matter how many times I cover a Tyler Perry movie and interview his various casts, I have never heard a bad word spoken about the mutual experience. The descriptions frequently heard are “respectful”, “collaborative”, “open”, “creative”, “encouraging”, “joyful” and “wonderful”. So of course, during the Los Angeles leg of the recent press tour for Tyler Perry’s TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE, I had a chance to ask this cast:
At the end of the day and the end of this journey of making TEMPTATION, what have you personally taken away from the experience of making this movie and working with Tyler?
TYLER PERRY: Well, I love it myself! [laughing]
RENEE TAYLOR (Mrs. Chapman): Well, I love working with Tyler because for me he created an environment of such freedom and such support and such joy and such love that it was a really innovative and inspiring experience.
BRANDY NORWOOD (Melinda): [To Perry] I loved working with you. Seriously. I loved working with you. You really took care of all of us and I’m just so thankful, really thankful. I love my character. I had to work really hard on her. I mean that.
ROBBIE JONES (Harley): I was able to take my acting to a completely different level that I wasn’t sure that I can do. I was texting Tyler the other day about it. When we saw it at the premiere, I just saw a completely different level to this character. Honestly, after watching it for the second time, I just realized there were things that I was totally unconscious of that you saw the entire time, that I didn’t even see.You just brought something out of me that I didn’t even know was possible. It was such an amazing thing to watch. You have a vision for the character but when you get it from your perspective and you’re able to pull something out of you that you didn’t know existed and can watch it back, it’s a brilliant thing. Hats off. Amazing. This guy is amazing.
LANCE GROSS (Brice): For me, Tyler, I’m thankful for the opportunity to just do this film and show the stretch because this is different from anything I’ve ever played. I feel like you allowed me to be a man and to show the world that I’m a man. This is very deep. Just preparing this character I dealt with things from my past that I had kind of tucked away. So it was like therapy for me and I needed to go through that. I think it really shows on the screen. I just appreciate you choosing me for this.
JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL (Judith): When you work with directors who have so many films under their belt, sometimes you go into it and you’re like, “Alright. What’s this experience going to be like?” And you hear things….. What was so pleasantly surprising about working with Tyler is that he was such a collaborator. He was open to suggestions, open to debate, open to everything, open to you being, “I’m struggling with this. Or, how can we reconcile this. Or, I’m not feeling this. Or, how do I really find the truth in this.” And he was just open to change things and throw things at you and you throw things back at him, but yet he still was the captain of the ship, which you want in your director. First one on set, always on time, last one to leave. Knew who was doing what and what everyone’s name was and still created an environment for all of us to just be creative and fail big and be good and not be so good. It was such a great set to work on because it was long hours and when you needed him to crack a joke, he was so in touch with you as an artist. It was definitely a pleasant surprise to have such a great experience on set.
ELLA JOYCE (Sarah): Well, it was a personal joy for me to work on the film because this is my second time working with Jurnee. I worked with her when she was 12-years old on Selma, Lord, Selma, and to see her grow and develop into such a passionate, beautiful young actress, it’s a personal joy that Tyler will call me and ask me to come play her mother again so many years later. This is my second time working with Lance. I did a quick hilarious scene in Our Family Wedding and that was my first time I got to meet him on the set. He’s such a beautiful fine young man! I’m so happy to see that eye candy coming back to the screen! And I’m working with these folks! It was a personal joy for me because of the respect that I was shown. I don’t want to embarrass Tyler in any way, but just the way he treated me was a joy. It was something I wasn’t quite as used to, to be treated almost like I was Meryl Streep! That was pretty nice to be asked my opinions, ask me to do the role. . . He treated me with a lot of respect. I enjoyed working on the set.
The crew was top professional. And excuse me, I have to mention our DP’s name, Alexander Gruszynski. That man! I enjoyed working with him, too, be cause he made me look goooood! [W]hen you’ve got enough sense to hire real good crew people, hair and make-up people, all those people, it becomes a joy working with you.
When [Perry] sat with me and brought me into Atlanta, I was treated very well, so I worked very hard on this movie. I can honestly say it’s probably one of the hardest roles I’ve ever done in my career. I worked my butt off on that film! . . .But I enjoyed every minute of it because how many of us actresses pass a certain age, [where] Black actresses are allowed to have meaty roles like that? . . . So I commend what Tyler is doing on putting all of our beautiful Black actresses on the screen.
I really started paying attention to Tyler with Why Did I Get Married? and Good Deeds because it made me see another side of him that I feel is very deep; I feel his writing is very excellent, it’s unapologetically Black and I love that, I love him for it; about the relationships that we have and the way we relate with one another. When I read this script, I saw a writer that poured his soul into this script. There are so many other subtle storylines going on that you could talk about them forever and every single storyline could lead into another major story. . .[T]here’s so many things that you have to look at with all the different stories in this script. I am honored and grateful that someone thought enough of me to ask me to play such a wonderful role in this movie.
TYLER PERRY (writer/director): Just working with all these people has been a joy. I was having a conversation with somebody when I started this movie and I said, “Where is that next group? Where is that Howard Rollins and Denzel and Soldier Story? Where are those people? Where’s Lynn Whitfield? Where’s that generation? Cicely Tyson? Where are they?” And I found them. I found the next group of people. I’m super excited about it. I think they are all amazing. I think they are all wonderful. I wanted to do what I could to let them shine as bright as they could. I’m hoping that as this movie opens people not only get the message, I want them to get hope, redemption, faith, forgiveness, and making the right choices, but also to realize that there’s another generation of stars that are coming up that are gonna break this thing wide open.
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