Tyler Perry is ready to say goodbye to Madea. The writer-director revealed he plans to kill off his most famous character in the upcoming film, Tyler Perry’s a Madea Family Funeral.
“This is it,” Perry told Bevy Smith Monday on her SiriusXM radio show, Bevelations. “It’s time for me to kill that old bitch. I’m tired.”
“We’re gonna say goodbye in 2019,” he added. “I just don’t want to be her age playing her.”
Perry dons a wig, makeup and dress to portray trash-talking Mabel Earlene “Madea” Simmons. The director first introduced his elderly alter ego in a stage play 20 years ago. The character made her movie debut in Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005.
Since then, Madea has gotten her own movie franchise and appeared in eight films, including Madea’s Family Reunion (2006), Madea Goes to Jail (2009) and Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016).
The director joked that Madea didn’t know the end was near when they shot Family Funeral two years ago. “Don’t tell her,” he warned.
While the beloved character is retiring from movies, Perry promised she’ll appear in a “farewell” stage tour. Smith asked if he planned to take the character to Broadway. Perry said no.
“My thing with Broadway is this, you gotta do the exact same thing every night, the exact same way. That wouldn’t work for me,” he explained. “I would piss off all the producers. I’d be like, ‘look, we about to do something different right now.'”
Tyler Perry’s a Madea Family Funeral is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 1, 2019.
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8 movies too late….poor mans Eddie Murphy