TORONTO — Tyler Perry directs his first screenplay 27 years after writing it.
A Jazzman’s Blues, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, was Perry’s first screenplay, long before Madea made him a media mogul. At the time, Perry was pouring pittances into his less successful Atlanta stage shows.
After directing dozens of films, dozens of TV episodes, and expanding his 330-acre Tyler Perry studio empire in Atlanta, Perry will, for his first film on Netflix, reinvent that old Back to script. (“A Jazzman’s Blues” will begin streaming on his Sept. 23.)
“It looks like the timing was right,” Perry said in an interview before the film’s premiere on Sunday.
Set in mid-20th century Georgia, the film stars Joshua Boone as Bayou. Bayeux develops a crush on Leanne (Solea Pfeiffer) before leaving to pursue her big success in Chicago. Years later, she gets married and moves past the whites back to her hometown. Sung by Terrence Blanchard and choreographed by Debbie Allen, it’s a sketched romance against the backdrop of the segregated South and the era’s thriving music scene.
Comments have been edited for brevity.
AP: What was going on in your life when you wrote this?
Perry: I was really struggling and poor. It was a really tough time. I had the chance to see August Wilson play. I believe it was “Seven Guitars”. I had to sneak in during break time and go inside when people came out smoking. I couldn’t afford to buy a ticket. There was an afterparty at a small cafe and I ran into him. I told him what kind of shows I was doing and how much more I wanted to do. When he got home and started writing, “Jazzman” came out.
AP: Where did the story come from?
Perry: I grew up in New Orleans and have family in rural Louisiana. This is where I spent my summers with my grandmother. So I knew this world well. As a kid working on Bourbon Street, I listened to all kinds of music. All this music was in my head when I was writing it. I wasn’t trying to write a piece about the time when someone was passing through the South. A few years ago, I remember seeing a picture of my grandmother and great-grandmother who looked like white women. My grandmother married my grandfather who was clearly black. According to my aunt — I’m checking the facts now — there’s someone in my family who passed the Caucasian exam.
AP: Was that what your family talked about?
Perry: No, it’s the strangest thing from the generation before me. It’s just not spoken. it is not spoken. I think it’s a terrible prejudice to future children and people who benefit from the atrocities our families have endured. I think you are doing your family a disservice.
AP: This might be your most ambitious film. Did you feel like you had to build it up?
Perry: One hundred percent. “Diary of a Mad Woman” was my first film, but I didn’t direct it because I didn’t know how. It took all these movies and all these TV episodes to really understand filmmaking. I’m really starting to get it. For me, the camera was just there to tell the story. It didn’t quite capture everything the camera could express.
AP: So why are you working on it now?
Perry: I was strategic. I had to make sure I served my niche audience well. It took those successes to get here. It was all part of the plan. The reason it’s coming out now is because I’ve seen so many politicians and people in power who try to downplay and cover up the experience of black people in America. I think it’s up to us as storytellers to bring the true story to the forefront.
AP: Georgia has been at the center of battles over voting rights, abortion rights, and school curricula. How do you feel about having your own studio there?
Perry: There are two ways of looking at it. One is to be in Dr. Martin Luther King’s home and watch them fight and see the energy it takes to get things done. There is an abundance in it that I thrive on, plug in, and appreciate. On the other side, it deals with gerrymandering, voting rights issues, and abortion issues. With all these moments happening, I need to focus on my fighter so that I can function in the conditions I love.
AP: Some in Hollywood have called for a boycott of the production in Georgia before. Last year, Will Smith’s “Emancipation” pulled out of filming in the state. What are your thoughts on such measures?
Perry: I think some of them are extreme. There is a cancellation culture where if someone does or says something you don’t like, it will be cancelled. If the state makes laws you don’t like, you don’t go there. The reason I contest all of that is because we have elections every four years or midterm elections every two years. We get the chance to try and change that. So I think a drastic and immediate shutdown could harm the people working here. At the moment, he has over $400 million in cash on the premises of Tyler Perry Studios. And people come to work there who would never have had the chance to be in this business. We know that Hollywood is very focused on diversity right now. Well, it doesn’t get any more diverse than Tyler Perry Studios. If you’re trying to boycott the state, then those people are also boycotting.
AP: You’ve had a content deal with Viacom for years. This is the first movie on Netflix. Looking for a bigger platform?
Perry: I built this machine. Ready to create tons and tons and tons of content. So I want to be in a place where that kind of content can be created, and where I can express what I want to do, like “Jazzman.” I have a zombie movie I’ve been working on for a while and I want to do it. I just want to be in a place where I can nurture them all.
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