Justin Simien, ‘Dear White People’ Creator, Clears Air About Tyler Perry “Beef”

Justin Simien is clearing the air on his past issues with Tyler Perry and is looking to move on. Perry recently explored a previous interaction with Justin during an appearance on the Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast. Perry recalled Simien criticizing him in Dear White People , where the show’s characters denounced Perry’s stereotypical portrayals of Black people —a criticism that the Madea director didn’t take too kindly.

Lil Rel Howery, Katt Williams Join Cast Of Keke Palmer And SZA's Buddy Cop Film

“I called that ni**a and told him I was gonna beat his a**,” Perry asserted as he offered a chuckle. “When I think about somebody like him or somebody who has something to say, I’m like ‘Great, you have your opinion.’ I live from this seat, tempered, measured, patient, prayerful, and disciplined… So when I saw that, I was sad for him because I think he’s really, really talented.”

Simien caught wind of the episode and pleaded with anyone close to Tyler to put his video in front of him. The Houston native said that he was probably the “highbrow negro” that Perry referred to in the interview. Justin then detailed the challenges he’s faced being a Black creator in Hollywood and how Perry’s movies were seen as the standard for Black filmmakers by white executives.

“Whenever I would take my weird script to studios or financiers, they were like, ‘This isn’t like Tyler Perry, we don’t know how to sell this.’ And I took that to mean that Tyler and I were at odds and I was railing against what I perceived to be the status quo,” he explained

However, he regretted that he had some kind of “beef” with the New Orleans native over his portrayal of Black folks onscreen. He claimed that the root of the issue between himself and Perry was because Simien “was an outsider” who “fell for the okey-doke.” The filmmaker then corroborated Perry’s claims that he told Justin he was going to “beat his a**” during that fateful 2017 phone call. Simien did state that he was able to apologize to Perry for “tearing you down for a system that you actually did not create” while bigging up Tyler for his contributions to Black cinema.

Keke Palmer Defends Tyler Perry Amid Backlash Over "Similar" Films, Says He's "Not The Enemy"

“Once I was inside the ring, I realized if you’re a person of color, if you’re a marginalized person making work about your own experience, the most sort of loud and egregious negative commentary that you’re probably going to get is going to come from your own community,” Simien detailed in his TikTok video.

“I was going around the road and suddenly like Dear White People which itself was trying to rail against the system. Suddenly people were telling me to my face, I was not Black enough, I was not gay enough, my movie was not radical enough, and I was like, ‘Oh no, this is what I did to Ty. This is what I did to Tyler,'” he added. “It takes a lot of stress and a lot of energy to maintain that level of defense against, you know, all of these people… And I just want Tyler Perry to know he does not have to do that with me, for whatever it’s worth—and it may not be worth much to him, but it is nothing but love from me to you, brother. And that’s all I have to really say about it.”

Watch the videos above.

Tyler Perry Dismisses "Highbrow Negroes" Criticizing His Films: "Get Out Of Here With That Bullsh*t"