The Real Reason Tyler Perry Doesn’t Care About Having Decent Wigs in His Movies
Tyler Perry is one of the most prolific film directors of our time. Well before his breakout film, 2005’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman — Perry was traveling across the country with his stage plays and introducing the world to his iconic matriarch character, Madea.
Since then, Perry has had deals with OWN Network, BET and Netflix. Also, he recently opened his massive Atlanta studio — the biggest and only Black-owned movie studio in the country. Films like Black Panther, Coming to America 2 and Bad Boys III have all been filmed on the studio lot.
Though Perry has been praised for giving Black actors work at a time when Hollywood was ignoring them — prior to Kerry Washington’s Scandal, he’s also garnered quite a bit of criticism. From errors in his films to convoluted plotlines and even the startling bad wig choices, fans of Perry have been questioning some of his decisions.
Tyler Perry writes all of his films and TV shows himself
While most television shows have writer’s rooms– Tyler Perry has written ever single episode of OWN’s The Haves and the Have Nots and BET’s The Oval, and Sistas himself. In early Jan. 2020 he shared on Instagram,
I don’t know if you know this, but all shows on television have a writer’s room,” he said in the video. “And, most of the time, there are ten people or 12 or whatever that write on these television shows. Well, I have no writer’s room. Nobody writes any of my work. I write it all. Why am I telling you this? I wrote all of these scripts by myself in 2019. Work ethic!
Unfortunately, Perry’s post caused a ton of backlash about the quality of his projects and the fact that he refuses to give writers jobs they desperately need.
Tyler Perry’s movies have been criticized for their editing mistakes
Perry films his movies very quickly. While most feature movies take months to shoot — the writer/director/producer shot his latest film — Netflix’s A Fall From Grace in just five days.
As a result, things weren’t perfectly edited like many fans would have expected fo a Netflix project. In one scene, extras can be seen eating and drinking from empty plates and cups. One Twitter user said, “This is what happens when you grab a random person on the street to be an extra and film a whole movie in 5 days. Drinking and eating a whole bunch of air.”
There were other issues in the film as well including a mic seen in the frame and other continuity problems.
The wigs in Tyler Perry’s movies have always been a hot topic
From braid wigs on bald men, to poorly place high top and plastic-looking hair, the wigs and hairstyles in Tyler Perry’s movies and shows have always been startlingly bad. In fact, when Netflix first dropped the trailer for A Fall From Grace — that’s all people could talk about. Now, Perry is addressing the strange hair choices.
In an interview with Hello Beautiful, Perry and A Fall from Grace’s star Crystal Fox revealed that they got into a heated argument about how awful her wigs were. “We had a knockdown, drag-out argument about the wigs in one of the scenes,” Perry revealed. “It was very emotional for her. “As long as you figure it out before it’s time to shoot. I’m good. I don’t have time to wait five hours and spend $10 million to figure out which curl is right for you.”
Black women are very particular about their hair. Since Perry knows this, it seems strange that he wouldn’t try and accommodate his actors a bit more. Fox explained, “As a woman of color, our hair is part of the journey so it is very, very important. And to some people, it is hard to stress that it is that important.”
