EXCUSIVE: Tyler Perry Talks his New Movie, Don’t Look Up

Tyler Perry has held a multitude of hats over the last couple of years. From director to producer to actor, Perry has become a staple in the Entertainment Industry. This Friday, December 10, he will be putting his acting hat back on to play talk show host, Jack Bremmer in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.

We got the chance to hear from Perry about his role in the movie, how he created the character, the scene that made him most uncomfortable and so much more. Check it out below.

On whether or not he used his Live with Kelly hosting experience from 2012 as inspiration for his character: “As fun as that was in that moment, I actually made a couple phone calls to a couple of people who are on morning shows right now, that I admire. Joe Scarborough is one and Michael Strahan is the other. I sent them part of the script. I said, ‘Why don’t you read this and send it back to me on-on your iPhone? Just tape it.’ And they did, and I was like, okay, I got some bits here, I got some bits there. But those guys are professional journalists. This guy I played is not that. They were very helpful in pulling that off and helping me to pull that off.”

On the scenes that made him most uncomfortable: “When they were in the Oval Office, and Meryl’s character’s there with her son and just dismissing the facts and science, that to me was just very much ringing true because of what’s happening especially at the time, and the country where we were with the pandemic and things just being dismissed. And everybody who says anything counter to what the truth is. So for a narrative, and people are dying, that was-that was pretty right down the road there scary.”

On what he would do if it was his last day on earth: “What I love is at one point in the movie there’s some people sitting around the table, and I think that that is just so powerful. And I think that’s exactly what I would do, sit around the table with people that I love and care about, and-and have some wine, have a great meal. And give everybody cyanide right before it happens and we’ll all just have good time.”

Who is planning on seeing the movie this weekend? If not, the movie will hit Netflix on December 24.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Photo Credit: NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX