The premise and foundation of Tyler Perry’s upcoming Netflix film “A Jazzman’s Blues” was built on a screenplay he wrote in 1995 — 27 years ago — and recounting the journey it took to get to the world premiere at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival is emotional for the 53-year-old director.
“It’s really profound to get to this place after all these years,” Perry said at the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian. “I was grieving for the last couple of weeks, I didn’t know why, but it was. After holding onto something so long and finally letting it go, I would equate it to letting a kid go off to college.”
Since writing the screenplay, Perry has ascended to billionaire status, with his more-than-300-acre Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta and nearly 60 writing and directing credits in film and TV (plus his popular plays). But those accomplishments, he explained, were what he needed to do to establish himself as a director before Hollywood would allow him to make this movie.
“As I was doing Madea and the ‘Why Did I Get Married’ [movies], I knew that I had to be intentional for my audience. If I had a flop or something didn’t work, then as a Black man, I don’t know how many opportunities I would have gotten to right the ship,” he told Variety Senior Entertainment Writer Angelique Jackson. “I had to wait for the right time and be intentional — to build the studio, to build a space, to build a career, to make sure my own own footing was sure, so that I could go into ‘Jazzman.’”
The new film will hit Netflix on Sept. 23, telling a tale of forbidden love across 40 years in the deep South between Bayou and Leanne, played by Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer, respectively.
Of being handpicked by Perry to co-lead the film in roles he originally envisioned himself, Will Smith and Halle Barry in, Boone said it was “deeply humbling” to receive the opportunity: “I didn’t have fear about it, necessarily, it was just ‘Oh, if you trust me with this, I’m ready to go to work, ready to get it in.’” Boone also delved into the singing and choreography requirements for the role, crediting industry icon Debbie Allen for mentoring him during those scenes.
“The word that I keep on coming back to is trust. It is a massive responsibility to take on something that is so precious to someone,” Pfeiffer said of acting alongside Boone in her first film role. “What I trusted was that, if this character has lived in [Perry’s] mind for 27 years, and [he] chose me, then there must be something innately correct, and I can follow my instincts.”
Check out the full conversation above.
