Chris Rock Once Shared He Never Wanted to See Denzel Washington or Will Smith in Drag Like Tyler Perry
Comedian Chris Rock may be at odds with Will Smith now. But there was a point he held the actor in as high regard as Denzel Washington. Because of this, he wanted them both to avoid this well-known Tyler Perry trope.
Chris Rock didn’t want Will Smith and Denzel Washington to emulate Tyler Perry
There has been a longtime Hollywood controversy regarding African-American male actors wearing dresses in films and television. Some believe doing so only hurts their image in the long run. Comic Chris Rock is one of many who’ve voiced his disapproval of dressing black actors in drag. In an interview with Vibe (via The Jasmine Brand), Rock shared how disappointed he’d be if two of Hollywood’s biggest stars followed that blueprint.
“Tyler Perry is great in a dress, but I don’t want to see Denzel or Will Smith in a dress. And I don’t think we’re in any danger of seeing that. [The black community] doesn’t have that many movies, so if there’s only four black movies in a year and two of them star black men in dresses, I could see how that would upset some people. But that’s a job for some people,” Rock said.
Rock was referring to Perry’s famous Madea character, where the mogul would dress up in women’s dress to play her. Perry once addressed criticism regarding black actors having to put on dresses. He insisted those kinds of concerns didn’t apply to him since it was his choice.
“Nobody owned that dress but me,” Perry once said on T.I’s ExpediTIously podcast. “A $2 billion franchise, nobody told me to put it on, nobody makes me put it on. It was all on stage. Black man owned the whole show, it was my choice.”
Chris Rock felt Tyler Perry made movies for women
Rock has been in the film business for decades. Given his experience, the comedian once noticed the lack of diversity behind the scenes in the film industry. Particularly, he wanted to see more African-American women penning projects in Hollywood.
“I want more Black movies. I wish that [Black] women would get involved in the production and the writing and directing of more of them. That’s what I wish. For Black movies anyway,” Rock once said in an interview with Shadow And Act.
He felt that Tyler Perry ended up filling a void that women of color could’ve benefited from. Given many of his films like Temptation and Netflix hit A Fall From Grace featured prominent female characters, Rock may have had a point.
“Tyler Perry makes movies for women. I wouldn’t even say the female Tyler Perry. The real Tyler Perry. Not that there is anything wrong with him making the movies. Even he’ll probably tell you, you know a woman should probably be doing this. But he’s doing it, and he’s doing a great job at it,” he said.
Rock also didn’t rule out the possibility of doing a Perry movie himself.
“Hey, everything I get, I read the script. A lot of times I tell my agent to take the front page off the script. So I’m not prejudiced by who wrote it, especially when I’m reading a bunch of scripts, I don’t want the front page,” Rock said.
Chris Rock helped inspire Tyler Perry’s ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’
Rock had a hand in bringing Perry’s Madea to the big screen in Boo! A Madea Halloween. In Rock’s movie Top Five, Rock’s character references a fictional Madea film. Rock initially called Perry to get permission to mention the Madea character.
“Chris Rock did a movie called Top Five, and in this movie he did this ridiculous spoof that he called to get permission for from me called Boo! A Madea Halloween. I’m like, ‘Chris, that’s so ridiculous,’” Perry once said according to Hip Hop Hollywood.
Still, Perry allowed Rock to reference Madea. But the reference caught the interest of a studio, who wanted to make the spoof a reality.
“So, he puts it in the movie and Lionsgate saw it. They went, ‘Tyler, what do you think about a Halloween movie?’ I said, ‘I know you not calling me about that Boo, Madea Halloween s***.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, man. Yeah.’ It took me two years to try to figure out how to do it,” Perry said.
