Tyler Perry breaks down on ‘The View,’ struggles to finish interview
Tyler Perry became emotional while remembering his late mother, Willie Maxine Perry, on “The View” Tuesday.
The acclaimed director, 54, visited the daytime talk show to promote his new documentary, “Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story,” which chronicles his life and is named after his later mother, who died in 2009 after a long illness.
“The View” co-host Sara Haines, who watched the doc, praised Tyler for “living every word” she’s ever learned in her faith and spirituality, adding, “You’re amazing.”
She then said she “met Maxine” throughout the film, noting she “didn’t know her” before,” which visibly moved Tyler.
“OK, wait a minute. … You met my mother through [the doc]? Wow,” he said while fighting back tears. “Thank you.”
“To say that you met her through that, that takes me somewhere because she — this woman endured so much pain and she didn’t have some legacy, but she had me,” the “Madea’s Family Reunion” star added.
“To say that I was able to introduce her to you — you got me there, man. I’m sorry. … Lord, have mercy.”
Haines, 46, then thanked Tyler for “sharing” his mother with the public and went on to discuss the “Gone Girl” actor’s “violent” childhood, which was filled with “a lot of trauma.”
However, Tyler interrupted her, saying, “I’m sorry, guys,” reiterating that he was still moved by Haines’ previous remarks about meeting his mother.
“You really got me, there,” he said. “I’m sorry. I need to get myself together.”
Haines also got teary-eyed, prompting co-host Whoopi Goldberg to pass her a package of tissues.
Tyler then said, “I just imagine a woman who’s lived her life with so much pain and she was always worried about everybody else and, I think, I watched her get sick, I watched her get cancer, I watched her get all of these things because her intention was, ‘Are you happy?’ ‘Are you OK?'”
He added, “She never thought that she was important and she never thought that anybody would care, so to say that this documentary that [filmmakers] Gelila [Bekele] and Armani [Ortiz] did about my life introduces her to the world, that moves me because she was very much that special to me.”
Several viewers gushed on social media over the “beautiful” and “powerful” moment that Tyler and Haines shared.
“Sara said what Tyler needed to hear. That was a beautiful moment,” one person tweeted.
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Another added, “Most beautiful moment. Sara always has the right words to express the exact thought.”
A third wrote, “I didn’t expect to turn on #TheView for a hot minute and be turned into a puddle of tears. Tyler Perry is that guy.”
In a separate interview with “CBS Mornings,” Tyler shared how his mother motivated him to be successful.
“Everything I did was about her. All the work was about her,” he explained Tuesday. “I was never after money. It was always about making enough money to take care of her, to buy her medicine, to make sure we were never in poverty again. No matter how much I had, it was never enough.”
“Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story” starts streaming on Amazon on Nov. 17.
