Tyler Perry didn’t like playing the role of Madea
Tyler Perry toured the country in 2019 and 2020 in what was billed as a farewell show for Madea. In an interview with Level near the end of the tour, he was asked if he missed the much-beloved character. The star answered with a blunt no.
When the interviewer expressed incredulity, Perry insisted, “My hand to God. I hated the costume, the wig, all of it.”
Perry was then asked how he felt about Madea at the beginning of his career. “I was scared to death! I watched Eddie Murphy and how he did his female characters. I said I’ll try it once and that’s it,” Perry said. “And it ended up being a $2 billion franchise.”
It was far from the first time he’d complained about the iconic character that launched his career. In a 2011 interview with Creative Loafing, Perry talked about how much he disliked transforming into Madea: “Being in Georgia in a fat suit, and wig and makeup, in the middle of summer? The physicality of it is no fun.”