Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Tyler Perry On The Power of Kindness, Gratitude & His New Movie "A Jazzman's Blues"

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) is an actor, filmmaker and the owner of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, GA. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about new movie called "A Jazzman's Blues" which is streaming now on Netflix. He talks about writing the original screenplay for this movie in 1995, why now was the right time to make it, the lessons he learned from Oprah Winfrey, working with David Fincher on the movie "Gone Girl", his partnership with Netflix and much more! Check out A Jazzman's Blues here: http://www.netflix.com/ajazzmansblues If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet CVV CLIPS: youtube.com/CVVCLIPS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blurley. It is so good to have you with us on this one. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet, and this is the big one today. Not only because it's episode 400, which is amazing and kind of hard to wrap my head around this, but we get to celebrate this milestone with Tyler Perry. Tyler is one of my favorite people to talk to, and I've been so fortunate to have done so many interviews with him over the last 10 or so years.

And by the way, thank you for being with us, whether this is the first episode that you've ever listened to, or whether you've been here the whole time for all 400 episodes. I appreciate you so much. And I appreciate Tyler. He's been so exceptionally kind to me, my entire career. And when you talk to anyone about Tyler Perry, though, that's just the person that he is. It's just the kind of guy he is. And I owe him a debt of gratitude for the kindness that he showed me

and just his generous nature. And I'm just so glad that we could sit down for this to talk about his new movie. It's called a Jazz Man's Blues. It's out on Netflix as of today. He wrote it, directed it, and produced it. And it's actually one of the first screenplays that he ever wrote. He wrote this back in 1995, and he tells me the whole story behind why he's making it now and why 27 years later is the right time to put this out.

If you haven't done so already, please follow the podcast wherever you're listening right now and take a screenshot, tag us so that we know that you're with us and also so we can share it out. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Tyler is at Tyler Perry, and let's do it. Please welcome the one, the only. Tyler Perry I knew it I knew it

I knew it I knew it man congratulations on LA and everything what are you doing in Vegas so my old boss is the news director in Vegas

and he said when you do interviews can we run them here and I said sure I love it man that's awesome that's awesome

we got to catch up it's been years yeah it's been way too long it was right before you know the world shut down yeah that's right

that's right we'll make it happen thank you for always being so kind to me. I super appreciate it. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Who was the person who was really kind to you early on in your career? Oh, gosh. Early on in my career, I ran into a lot of people really kind.

Oprah was definitely one of them. You know, every major celebrity I met of the older generation, they were all very kind and imparted a lot of wisdom into me. What do you think is the lesson from Oprah that you still carry with you now with everything you do? Just to how authentic she is in herself, just how it is important to her to make everybody feel seen and feel good. And that, I love what that did for me, and I want to do that for other people.

So that's definitely from her and my mother. So when you make a film like this, how do you decide if you're going to star in the film or if you're just going to sit back and do everything behind the scenes? Well, when I wrote it 27 years ago, I wanted to star in it, but I got too old. And so I had to rethink of the casting. And I thought, you know, I'm going to be.

to sit back in a director's chair and really take my time and paint every image like a photograph here and find some incredible talent. And we were able to do that. I'm very, very proud of the work. So with that said, if you got in your mind, like it was going to be you playing bio, what does that actor have to do to impress you in an audition? You know what I was just looking for is someone who understood the period and the time and asked the right questions. And Joshua Boone asked the right questions. He challenged my thought process in some of those situations that made me think, hmm, but also the understanding of this is a vision that we need to paint together. So it's really, really great. I think this is a

movie that people are surprised that you're making. Like, it's not a movie people expect from you. Like, do you enjoy surprising people? You know, the first, most of these 25 years or so, it's been about making sure I establish myself securely in my career so that I can do things like this because I always felt with every hit that I was still fledgling in the business, that if I had one miss, something would go off. So I had to stick with what I knew would work. But now I'm at a place and dealing in having a partner like Netflix, I'm able to do things that I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm so curious about Gone Girl. When you were on the set of Gone Girl and you're learning under someone amazing like David Fincher, what's something that you take as a direct

now onto the sets when you're directed. Everything, everything, everything except 100 takes of each thing. But I took, I took every. You're like one takes. One or two, yeah. If I'm doing four or five takes, something's majorly wrong.

But he was very much a wealth of information. Just he knew so much about so many different things. And I've listened to he and Ben talk, and it was very helpful in everything that I put into Jazz Man. I think the life's like all about moments. And there can be moments in our life that change our life one way or the other. What do you think the one moment for you that has set you on the path that you're on now? I think it was probably hearing no a lot.

I don't know one specific moment that set me on the path. But every time I would hear a no, it would give me this strength and desire to make sure that I got a yes somewhere. You're such an inspiration. Thank you for always being so kind, so generous. with everything. Absolutely, man, Chris, I appreciate it. Congratulations. Well, congratulations to you. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, things are good. I appreciate that. Super grateful for you and I can't wait to catch up with you. Yeah, absolutely, sir. We'll do that. Thank you, my friend. All right. Talk you soon. I love that guy. Huge thank you to Tyler for this mini interview, this mini view, as I call

these. And thank you for always being with us on these audio adventures. Go check out Tyler Perry's new movie called a Jazz Man's Blues. It's streaming on Netflix right now. And take a screenshot on your phone. Tag us on social media. Let us know what stood out for you. Let us know what you thought of the film after you've seen it. Tyler is at Tyler Perry. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And since Tyler mentioned Oprah and what he learned from her, I'll leave you with an Oprah Winfrey quote. You get in life what you have the courage to ask for. Be great and be grateful. We'll See you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

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