Filmmaker Tyler Perry was a 60 Minutes guest on Sunday night. Interviewer Bryon Pitts asked him to respond to some disparaging comments that famed director Spike Lee made at the 14th Annual Black Enterprise Conference.
In a discussion about black entertainment, Lee said, “I think that there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery. I see ads for Meet the Browns and House of Payne and I’m scratchin’ my head. We’ve got a black president and it seems like we’re going back. The image is troubling and it harkens back to Amos and Andy.”
Perry was visibly upset when he told Pitts, “Let me tell you what… Madea, Brown and all of these characters are a bait. Disarming, charming, make you laugh bait, so that I can slap Madea in something and talk about God, love, faith, forgiveness, family…any of those things…you know. So that p*sses me off, it really does because it’s so insulting. It’s attitudes like that…that make Hollywood think that these poeple do not exist and that’s why there is no material speaking to them…speaking to us.”
See last night’s 60 minutes video and Spike Lee’s comments.