Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise is back with A Madea Homecoming, which is now streaming on Netflix. The comedy doesn’t shy away from important topics and focuses on the graduation of Madea’s great-grandson, played by Brandon Black, who also decides to come out as gay to his family.
“Madea’s back — hallelujer! Tyler Perry returns with everyone’s favorite character in A Madea Homecoming, the newest film in the Madea franchise set to debut on Netflix. Writer-director-producer Perry stars in the film that centers around Madea’s great-grandson’s college graduation, though the celebratory moment hits a halt as hidden secrets and family drama threaten to destroy the happy homecoming,” says the official synopsis.” “The film features all-stars of the Madea franchise, including Tamela Mann (Cora), David Mann (Mr. Brown), Cassi Davis Patton (Aunt Bam) as well as a guest appearance from iconic Irish actor Brendan O’Carroll, who matches Madea’s comedic prowess as Agnes Brown.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with A Madea Homecoming star Brandon Black about working with Tyler Perry, the energy on set, and his important scenes in the film.
Tyler Treese: The film’s really funny. So I have to ask, how difficult is it staying in character when Tyler’s just going off as Madea?
Brandon Black: Great question. It is extremely difficult. There’s stuff on the cutting room floor, I’m sure, of me just looking away, looking up, looking somewhere else because I was going to break. Tyler Perry is extremely funny. Also Cassi Davis who plays Aunt Bam is…we went home every night, talking about her, and how funny she was. I thought that that’s really how she actually is, and she was kind of just being herself, but then [I] had a conversation with her, and she is an astute actress who knows all of her lines, who’s got advice, and also like, kind of wants to party.
It was a great time working with them, but the two of them specifically were just really hard to, you know, they’re the funny characters, I’m supposed to be like really, having a moment and then they’re doing all this stuff. I’m just trying to just look just straight ahead. It was a really fun time trying to hang in there. I felt like I was on SNL or something.
Definitely and it really shows in the film that you guys are having a lot of fun. Your character has this big arc at the beginning where he is coming out as gay and he’s fearing this backlash, but his family’s super supportive. I thought that was just so refreshing not to have a big drama about it. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on that scene.
I thought that that was super refreshing as well. That was one of the main things that was important to me is, I didn’t want to be part of another, like…there’s a lot of coming out stories that are so tragic and those are real, that exists, but let’s also acknowledge that that’s not always what happens sometimes. Especially, you know, as we get further down the line in time, your family already knew, or they’re not surprised, they’re not let down.
This was one of those examples where they were like, “Oh yeah, we were waiting for you to tell us.” And I just, when I saw that in the script, I was really relieved to be a part of that kind of story, because I think we should put that out more. I really like that Tyler’s already got a large audience that’s going to see this, and they’re going to see that. They’re gonna see a positive reaction. I just think that’s really important.
All of the themes are really summed up by a speech you give at the very end of the film. Have you always been a great public speaker? What did you draw on for that scene?
Barack Obama [laughs]. Of course. I mean, I feel that Tim being, you know, going to law school next and wanting to become a lawyer, I feel like obviously, Barack Obama is someone that you’re going to look to with a little pink sprinkling of Pete Buttigieg, you know? So I feel like for me, I needed to make sure that I came across as composed that way.
As an actor, of course, you’re kind of public speaking a lot as well, but that audience is real. Like, that’s not CGI. That is a ton of people. So Tim is better at public speaking than I am. I had to kind of pull it together. I took a public speaking class and did not do well. So if it looked like I killed it, thank you.
