Through the years Tyler Perry has overcome a great deal of obstacles in building his movie empire, though the filmmaker recently said he felt he "never had go to through what a lot of other people had to go through" with regard to racism in Hollywood.
Perry was among the many speakers featured during this past weekend’sProduced By conference in Los Angeles, Producers Guild of America's. He opened up to moderator, Ava DuVernay about his entry into Hollywood.
“I’m not the person to ask about racism in this town, coming from where I came from I never had to go through what I’ve heard a lot of people had to go through in this town,” he said, according to Deadline. “I got into this town and I didn’t understand it.”
The movie mogul went on to discuss how his upbringing in New Orleans prepared him for some of the frustrations familiar to those working in the industry.
“I’m from the South where they tell you they don’t like your ass if they don’t like something,” he said. “This town, with so much madness inside, it will talk you out of what you feel is your instinct, what you feel you should do. The key is to learn how to be malleable and fluid inside a system that will constantly battle your instinct.”
Perry has been listed by Forbes of one of the highest-earning men in entertainment, and his OWN original series “If Loving You Is Wrong” and “The Haves and the Have Nots’” have broken records for the network.
As his projects continue to attract millions of viewers on television, Perry discussed the emergence of Fox's "Empire" in the television landscape.
“In order to have the success of an ‘Empire,’ you have to have Fox. You have to have huge P&A, you have to have huge budgets for the show itself,” Perry said. “I’m pretty comfortable saying Empire's budget is six times what I’m spending on The Haves and Have Nots."
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