Seeing what happened with the two people we sent to Washington, it shows you the power of what that is. That’s what I make sure is in the front of my mind, because every four years we have an election and things can change. Just the level of positivity of seeing Black people do well. King and his memorials was a place that I could thrive and be my best self. The beauty of Georgia, Texas and Florida and all of these great states, they’re going to outlive us, our politics and politicians. What’s been your experience living and working in the state as the spotlight shifts there?
That’s just a very dangerous place.įor a lot of us, a reason to retain some optimism is seeing what happened in Georgia during the last election. Everybody’s grabbing a corner, a color and a flag, and nobody’s wanting to come to the middle to solve issues. I think about all the vitriol, all the hatred. What we’re seeing, on so many levels, it’s frightening. The truth of the matter is that a lot of people in the country are worried about where we’re going. Maybe one day he’ll share it, because I don’t feel like it’s mine to share. I still think about it now and I get emotional. I had the most beautiful conversation with Bradley Cooper that really moved me. Your speech asking people to refuse hate at this year’s Oscars, when you won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, got a lot of attention. Sistas, House, Bruh: Charles Bergmann/BET/Tyler Vision, LLC. “Working here has afforded me to not have to pay attention to what’s going on in Hollywood,” says Perry, who produces (clockwise from top) BET’s Sistas, Bruh and House of Payne in Atlanta. I’m sure psychologists could tell you what that is … I don’t know. When I’m writing a script, I access that place and I can create those worlds pretty easily. In my pain, in my abuse, I was able to disassociate and go into another world and see all these beautiful places in my mind. And I do know that would affect a lot of people if I weren’t doing all that I am doing. ( Laughs.) If you look at the DGA and a lot of unions, they credit what we’ve done here for having the most diversity of any place. An entire economy would shut down if you had prolonged writer’s block. I’ve always wondered how you plow through when you’re not feeling creative. But I realize there’s so much more that I could be doing if I were to hand some of the other stuff off - rather than doing it all myself. And I love directing for 12- or 15-hour days. Every morning, after I work out, I start writing at 7 and don’t finish until 7 in the evening. I wrote 72 episodes of television - just me in a room by myself, sitting out there, looking at the moose and the mountains. For the past six weeks, I was in the mountains. It’s going to be more of me overseeing, rather than doing the hands-on work. What does relinquishing look like for someone with that much creative control? My plan is to relinquish to a lot more directors and writers to take over a lot of these shows that I’ve started. I’m the volume guy for about three or four more years. I usually take the rest of the year off, but because they’re burning them up on BET, we had to re-up early this year. I just finished directing for half of the day. You’re someone who can film a season of television faster than anyone else currently working, so is it safe to assume you’ve had a busy day? 'PAW Patrol: The Movie': Meet the Voices Behind the Animated Characters