Even if you think you know Tyler Perry’s story – his improbable rise from homeless playwright to billionaire media mogul with a dozen Madea movies in between — the first footage from the upcoming documentary “Maxine’s Baby” contextualizes it all in a new way.
In August, PvNew exclusively announced that the documentary was heading to Amazon MGM Studios. Directed by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz, the documentary aims to present an “tender, intimate portrait” of Perry, with its title as a nod to his late mother Willie Maxine Perry, who died in 2009, and the two-and-a-half-minute trailer teases what’s to come.
The trailer opens with Perry backstage before a big event — presumably the 2019 opening of his eponymous 330-acre studio in Atlanta, Ga. “How are you feeling right now sir?” Ortiz asks from behind the lens.
“My problem with a lot of things in life is I can float above it. That’s just from childhood, from abuse,” Perry says solemnly as pictures from his childhood flash by. He closes his eyes and explains: “So, every moment, it’s like, ‘You’re okay, you’re safe.’ It’s just the emotion. It’s just feeling. It’s love.”
Born Emmitt Perry Jr., he changed his name to Tyler Perry due to his estranged relationship with his abusive father. “I just could not understand how this man could look at me and hate me with such passion,” Perry recalls.
But his father wasn’t his only adversary. once Perry arrived in Hollywood, he battled other naysayers, who couldn’t see the vision for his career. “I had all these people tell me what I would never be. Nobody said what I could be,” Perry adds.
Among those negative notions were studio executives underestimated the power of Perry’s audience and told him that Black people don’t go to the movies. “My mother said, ‘Don’t ever let anybody tell you who you are. You know who you are,” Perry says.
Nearly a decade in the making, the film captures Perry at his highest highs — performing before sold out arenas and capturing the top spot at the box office time and again — as well as the quiet moments in between — typing on his laptop, directing on set or puffing on a cigarette while in his Madea drag. There’s also footage of an off-duty Perry spending time with his and Bekele’s son Aman.
The trailer also teases that the film will tackle the ongoing debate about Perry’s work and those critics who believe his stories perpetuate negative images of Black people. “What I will not do is change because some critics think it’s not art,” he says defiantly.
Oprah Winfrey is heard giving her opinion on Perry’s success. “Do not play him small because he is not just some lucky Negro-turned-Black man,” Winfrey — who is among Perry’s closest confidants and biggest inspirations. Gayle King chimes in too, adding: “There was no denying the talent and the power of Tyler Perry.”
The clip ends on an emotional note, using footage of Maxine Perry saying to the camera, “I just want to tell you how blessed I am to have a son like you.”
The Amazon MGM Studios and Bekele Films documentary will make its world premiere at this year’s AFI Fest, debuting Friday, Oct. 27 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood as one of the festival’s centerpiece screenings. Then, “Maxine’s Baby” — which clocks in at 115 minutes and is produced by Bekele, Jasmine K. White and Asante White — will begin streaming on Prime Video on Nov. 17.
Watch the full trailer below.
