What’s with the Wigs Mr Perry?

Whats+with+the+Wigs+Mr+Perry%3F

Tatiana Mackel, webmaster

Just this past year Tyler Perry opened Tyler Perry Studios. A production studio compound that is bigger and better than the production studios we’ve grown up with. Perry purposely built the studio in a neighborhood that is Black, underserved, and poor. Just to give the people growing up there inspiration and hope.
“I want you to hear this. Which meant Confederate soldiers on that base were plotting and planning how to keep 3.9 million Negros enslaved. Now that land is owned by one Negro,” said Perry at the BET Awards last summer.
Tyler Perry is a giant among men and definitely has redefined Black entertainment. There is not a play I won’t go to see or a movie that I haven’t seen that was created by this man.
“While everybody was fighting for a seat at the table talking about Oscars so white. I said ya’ll go ahead and do that but while ya’ll fighting for a seat at the table I’ll be down in Atlanta building my own,” Perry said.
His TV shows are hits and he’s even started a streaming service with BET, Black Entertainment Television. Last June during the BET Honors, he won the Ultimate Icon Award. Taraji P. Henson introduced him as a “brilliant visionary, that embodies what the African American dream truly is.”
With that being said his last project, a Netflix original, Fall From Grace should have been phenomenal instead of just good, but it was rushed with Perry reporting that he shot it in only five days.
Fall From Grace is about a middle-aged woman named Grace Waters, played by Crystal Fox, who is on trial for the murder of her husband Shannon Delong, Mechad Brooks. She confesses to the crime, but her attorney, Jasmine Bryant, (Bresha Webb), a meek public defender begins to think otherwise. With the help of police officer husband Jordan (Matthew Law), Jasmine finds her voice to fight for Grace. In turn, convincing Grace to fight for herself.
The movie and its plot are actually quite good. My disappointment came from his lack of employing writers and technical directors.
The wigs are so distracting, that I didn’t notice in one scene an extra was pretending to eat his food. Many people were starting to believe that the bad wigs were a private joke in his movies, but Perry had an explanation.
“I didn’t want Mechad to show up as Mechad,” he explained to Hello Beautiful. “I didn’t want Tyler to show up as Tyler. Even though we are who we are. What does the character look like? The character would have hair whether it’s fake hair or real hair, had different hair because this is the character’s hair so that’s what that is.”
He goes on to say “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.”
He is a man who is worth millions of dollars and has the largest studio complex in the United States but doesn’t have time or money to make sure his characters are properly dressed for their parts? He doesn’t have the budget for real makeup artists complete with realistic wigs?
I didn’t even feel the need for the wigs. How would it have changed the character at all if he was bald or at least had a wig that wasn’t from Party City? There were a lot of mishaps in this film, like Jordan the police officer handcuffing two different criminals and then running off to do something else. The connections really needed to be built up a little, which Perry could have done if he wasn’t the only writer. I feel that right now with his new venture and for the success of black media Perry needs to take his own advice and allow others to help him cross. Let those of us who admire him work on his writing staff and in his makeup rooms. It is time for collaboration. He can still be the final word in everything but even the greatest of kings had advisers.