Tyler Perry hopes his “twisted” new movie Duplicity “will entertain you,” and if audiences resonate with the racial injustice message at its core, then that’s an added bonus. During an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Perry said not everything in the film needs to be so deep and political.
“If you get something from [the movie], great. If you don’t and you were entertained, then that’s great too,” he said.
Tyler Perry’s Duplicity follows high-powered attorney Marley, played by Kat Graham, who investigates the shooting of her best friend’s husband, an unarmed Black man killed by a white police officer. As Marley looks into his death, she’s taken on a wild ride and realizes not all is as it seems.
“I was tired of people taking movements and hashtags and hijacking them for financial gain, for political gain,” said Perry, who wrote and directed the film.
“I wanted to just kind of make people think maybe we should look a little deeper at both sides of this to see where the truth is, because that’s where the help is,” he continued. “That’s where the change will come. So that’s what I was thinking when I started to write it, but then when these people, crazy-ass [characters] start getting more and more twisted, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is something.’ I’ve been on stage for 30 years with my audience and I know this kind of story really resonates and moves us.”
Perry knows true-crime dramas and documentaries click with audiences, but he “didn’t want to do one of those” with this subject matter.
“I wanted to have a fictional character so you can just watch and feel without realizing that this is actually a person that you’re watching, as if you’re in a true-crime documentary or watching a true-crime story,” he said. “For me, what I hope people will take away from it is it’s just entertainment.”
At the end of the film, Graham’s character gives a powerful speech about racial injustice and how it’s become such a political hot-button. If there’s a message to take away from the thriller, she sums it up in the final scene.
“I think every answer we need is in the middle,” Perry said of writing her speech. “Either extreme is too bad. Every answer we need is right in the middle, no matter what it is. If we can meet in the middle, have the conversation, that’s where the change is going to happen. So that’s what was important to me.”
Perry is one of the busiest people in Hollywood, but at some point, he’ll be looking to slow down and enjoy his billion-dollar empire. What’s keeping him inspired right now are the young actors coming through his Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. “[They] have incredible work ethic, they’re seeing themselves in a business that they never thought they could be in. They’re coming to the studio, coming through the gates, eyes bright and bushy-tailed and they get this moment to actually live out their dream,” he said. “That’s what’s keeping me going at this point, because at 55 and having done everything I wanted to do, I’m looking for the exit and I want to be able to pass it on to so many of them who are ready for it.”
Tyler Perry’s Duplicity is now streaming on Prime Video.
