When it comes to one particular critic of his work, Tyler Perry gets downright Madea-val:
“Spike Lee needs to shut the hell up!”
Perry, the uber-successful writer/producer/director (his homegrown films have grossed over $400 million), admits that he’s at the end of his patience with fellow filmmaker Lee, who’s made a habit of sharply criticizing Perry’s depiction of the African-American community and his use of broad-comedy characters including Perry’s signature tough-talking matriarch Madea (played by Perry himself in drag).
“I’m so sick of hearing about damn Spike Lee,” says Perry, whose latest film “Madea’s Big Happy Family” opens April 22. “Spike can go right to hell and all ya’ll can print that. I am sick of him talking about me. I’m sick of him saying, ‘This is a coon and buffoon.’ I’m sick of talking about him talking about black people going to see movies. This is what he said: ‘You vote by what you see’ – as if black people don’t know what they want to see. I am sick of him. He talked about Whoopi [Goldberg]. He talked about Oprah [Winfrey]. He talked about me. He talked about Clint Eastwood.” Read the full story here.
