HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Tyler Perry has fired back at Spike Lee after the Do the Right Thing director questioned his work.
In May, Lee dismissed Perry’s TBS sitcoms Meet the Browns and House of Payne as “coonery” and “buffoonery” during an interview with Ed Gordon on Our World with Black Enterprise.
“I would love to read that [criticism] to my fan base,” Perry told 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts. “All these characters of mine are bait, bait to get people talking about God, love, family, and faith.”
Lee said he was particularly disappointed in that Perry’s work comes at a time when the country has made great strides with the election of President Barack Obama.
“As African Americans, we’re not one monolithic group so there is room for all of that. But at the same time, for me, the imaging is troubling and it harkens back to Amos n’ Andy,” Lee said.
“That pisses me off. It is so insulting,” responded Perry to the criticism. “It’s attitudes like that that make Hollywood think these people do not exist and that’s why there’s no material speaking to them, speaking to us.”
The 40-year-old Perry also discussed being sexually and physically abused as a child — a revelation that he first made on his Web site earlier this month.
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Watch Tyler Perry’s interview on 60 Minutes:
