Tyler Perry Interview @ MVAAFF: ‘A Jazzman’s Blues’, His Jazz Music Inspirations, And His World War II Film

deadline.com:

I sat in the green room waiting for actor and director Tyler Perry to arrive backstage at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center for the Colors of Conversation event during the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival.

Before he hit the stage for the panel, there was only a short window to interview him about his new project, A Jazzman’s Blues, a script he had written in the 1990s.

Many know him from the Medea movies, which some think has limited his cinematic scope in terms of what he can do, but Perry is out to prove the naysayers wrong. “Filming this was very much like, ‘I know something you don’t know,” he said. “For my whole career, people would say that Madea is all I can do.

Now, 26 years later, I have The Jazzman’s Blues.”It’s an idea that he couldn’t shake. Imagine what it’s like to hold on to an idea and then finally be able to execute said idea all these years later.