Tyler Perry has big plans for his sprawling Atlanta studio.
The filmmaker revealed he plans to build a compound to help homeless women, displaced LGBTQ youth and human trafficking victims.
"I'll tell you what I'm most excited about next is pulling this next phase off, is building a compound for trafficked women, girls, homeless women, LGBTQ youth who are put out and displaced … somewhere on these 330 acres, where they're trained in the business and they become self-sufficient,” he told Gayle King on Tuesday morning.
“They live in nice apartments. There's daycare. There's all of these wonderful things that allow them to reenter society. And then pay it forward again. So that's what I hope to do soon," he added.
Perry officially opened his studio last Saturday with a star-studded gala. The guest list included Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and John Lewis, according to Atlanta Magazine.
Perry says he is especially proud because his studio sits on what used to be a confederate army base.
"Think about the poetic justice in that," he said. "The Confederate Army is fighting to keep Negroes enslaved in America, fighting, strategy, planning on this very ground. And now this very ground is owned by me."
Perry has filmed eight television shows, 22 movies and 20 plays, but he doesn’t feel any love from his industry peers, he says.
"I clearly believe that I'm ignored in Hollywood, for sure. And that's fine. I get it,” he told King.
Despite the snubs, the “Diary Of A Mad Black Woman” star isn’t pressed.
"But I know what I do is important. I know what I do touches millions of people around the world,” he continued. “I know how important every word, every joke, every laugh [is]. I know what that does for the people where I come from and the people that I'm writing for. So, yeah, I get that."
Perry isn’t sweating critiques from Black people either because he believes he is lifting as he climbs.
"I know for a fact that when I drive in through these gates, onto this 330 acres and see these 12 sound stages, and see the highway sign that says 'Tyler Perry Studios' as you're making to the exit in here, as I come in here and I see these hundreds of people working, these [B]lack and brown,” he continued.
Perry added, “I've been on sets where I've been the only Black face on, only Black face, as recently as 2019 going, 'Where are the Black people in this movie?' Back behind the camera? So, when I come to work here and every Black person that comes to work here they go, 'Oh my God, it's heaven. Here we are. We're represented.' Where everybody's represented. LGBTQ's represented. Black, white, gay, straight, whatever. We're all represented, working hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm.”