Atlanta’s Tyler Perry denies exploiting women’s pain to make his movies.
At the premiere of “A Fall from Grace,” the media mogul told the New York Post’s gossip column, Page Six, his films are a reflection of his mother being abused by his father.
"I'm always trying to send a message that you don't have to deal with this (expletive)," Perry told Page Six.
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He added: “It’s not about making money off of a woman’s pain — it is about telling a story. And I wish that people, especially black women, would get off the fact of saying, ‘Oh, he’s making money off of black women.’”
Perry has been open about his father, telling People magazine how he was physically abused by his father, whom he called a functioning alcoholic, and sexually abused by three men and a woman, all before the age of 10.
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As he was enjoying the opening of his 330-acre studio in Atlanta — the first black-owned studio lot and one of the largest in the country — Perry was planning his next move.
"You know what, right now I'm dreaming about how do I build this shelter for trafficked girls, boys and battered women," he told Essence during his gala event to open his studio.
And during an interview with Gayle King for CBS, Perry said: "Having a compound that is a beautiful place right here somewhere on this 330 acres, where they're trained in the business and they become self-sufficient, they live in nice apartments, there's day care, there's all of these wonderful things that allows them to re-enter society and then pay it forward again. That's what I hope to do soon."
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