UB Preview: ‘Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming’ | Launching Friday on Netflix

Tyler Perry returns with everyone’s favorite character in “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming,” the newest film in the Madea franchise set to debut on Netflix this Friday February 25th.

Tyler writes, directs, produces and stars in the film which 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.

The Q & A with Tyler Perry and Brendan O’Carroll
A lot of fans thought that we wouldn’t see Madea again, but she’s back. Why’d you decide to bring her back?
Tyler Perry: Just one word – laughter. I wanted to bring laughter to the country, to people, to the world. So much despair is happening with this pandemic and all that’s been going on with politics, I just wanted to bring pure laughter. Nothing else. Just laughs. So let’s bring her out and dust her off, and see what happens.

Many favorites from the Madea franchise return in this film. What was it like working with Cassi Davis Patton, Tamela Mann and David Mann
again?
Tyler Perry:: It feels just like home. We’ve worked together for so many years on so many projects. We feel like family, like we were all born to the same family. Just feels like coming home. So I love that about it.

The film highlights the themes of HBCUs and the homecoming experience. What made you want to focus on that?
Tyler Perry: Well, it didn’t start out that way. It started out as the young man graduating, but when I thought about Netflix and thought about what Beyoncé did for homecoming, and I thought about him being a character that was in college, like why not marry all of this and have some great fun with it?

What was it like for you to be a part of this film?
Brendan O’Carroll: It’s something that we’ve been talking about for about four or five years. As it turned out, it was great fun. It was a pleasure to watch him direct, and it was a joy to be there because they’re a great cast. Like our own cast, they’re very much family-family. My cast in “Mrs. Brown’s Boys” have been with me for over 20 years, and Tyler’s is the same. I hoped the chemistry between Mrs. Brown and Madea worked, and what the movie did for me was it showed me, “Oh, this definitely works. This definitely works!”

Do you feel a connection to Tyler because you both have played these similar characters on two sides of the globe?
Brendan O’Carroll: Well, it’s really weird the way we hooked up in the end, because I got a call from my agent in L.A. about six years ago, maybe seven years ago. And he said, “Here, I’ve got an odd one for you here.” He said, “Tyler Perry called looking for your number.” He called and he said, “The reason I’m ringing,” he says, “I think we’re brothers from another mother.” He said, “Your birthday is within two days of my birthday. We both were raised by our moms, and we both do a similar type show.” And he said, “You know, we got to do something together. We got to do something together.” And that’s where it started.

Tyler Perry introduced the world to Madea in 1999 with the stage play “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.”

“Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming” is the 12th film Madea has appeared in.

Several A-listers have appeared in the Madea films over the years, including Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, Gladys Knight, Viola Davis, Jenifer Lewis, Angela Bassett, Taraji P. Henson, Sofia Vergara, Eugene Levy, Loretta Devine, Mary J. Blige, Doris Roberts, Lynn Whitfield, Denise Richards, Keke Palmer, Tom Arnold, John Amos, Marla Gibbs, Blair Underwood, Kathy Najimy, Boris Kodjoe, Chad Michael Murray, Bella Thorne, Thandiwe Newton, Lauren London, Rick Fox, Tika Sumpter, Bow Wow and Teyana Taylor.

Check Out the UB Previews + BTS of “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming!”