Tyler Perry Talks Diversity Push Concerns – “I Don’t Want To Have Black People In Seats They Were Not Ready For”

deadline.com:

Tyler Perry expressed his excitement over the recent push for diversity in the film and TV business at a Toronto industry keynote on Sunday but added the drive would only succeed if it were accompanied by education, training and time to gain experience.The director, who has blazed a trail throughout his career in enlarging the space for black stories and talent on the small and big screen, is at Toronto for the world premiere of his new film A Jazzman’s Blues ahead of it release on Netflix on September 23.A labor of love for Perry that has been 27 years in the making, the drama stars emerging talents Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer as star-crossed lovers in 1940s Louisiana, whose relationship is thwarted by race laws of the time.It is among a raft of features at TIFF this year driven by black talent and stories including fiction features The Woman King and The Inspection and documentaries Sidney and Dear Mama among others.Quizzed on how he viewed this moment in history for black creators, Perry said:  “Let me be very careful on how I say this, be diplomatic.

I’m extremely excited for what’s happened with diversity and the choices and opportunities that we’re seeing for black people for the first time, it is amazing.”“But I worry because there is such a push for diversity and push for hiring people of color that I found situations that there are people being pushed into seats they’re not ready for,” he said.“At Tyler Perry Studios, we train so many people, we’ve brought people in and they do an amazing job but as soon as people are trained and they know the job, they’re snatched up to go to some bigger production, which is fine because if you want to find people who know their job, if they can make it at my studio they