Tyler Perry Breaks Apolitical Tradition to Weigh in on 2020, Give Endorsement

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Tyler Perry, who’s stayed largely apolitical throughout his career, is breaking the tradition to endorse a candidate in the 2020 presidential election.

“I really, truly don’t want to get political,” Perry said in his cover story for the latest issue of Variety. “What I want people to do is vote because everybody has very strong opinions about this. As do I.”

The filmmaker lives in Georgia — a historically red state — where he set up the largest movie studio in the United States.

“I have very, very strong feelings about the current administration,” said Perry. “I have very strong feelings about a lot that’s going on. But I’m neither Democrat [nor] Republican — I’m an independent thinker. I vote for who I think is best to run the country.”

That person is Joe Biden, according to the typically nonpartisan director, who Variety describes as “almost relentlessly centrist.”

“When you have influence, you have to be careful of how you use it and be specific in your choices of what you use,” he explained. “This is going to affect the country in the future. And the great thing about a democracy is every four years, you have an opportunity to make a change, and I’m hoping that there are enough decent people who are seeing that we need to make a change.”

Perry went on to say that one of the main reasons he’s speaking out now is for the sake of his 5-year-old son.

“If it were just me, I could step back and maybe have a different opinion,” he noted. “But I want him to be able to go to the national parks and they’re not drilling inside of them, to be able to turn on a debate and see two men stand professionally, giving each other the respect to finish their two minutes that they’re allotted and not talking over and screaming at each other.”

“If you want more of the same, then you vote the way that you did in 2016,” he continued. “If you want something different, then we need to have a landslide out voting for Joe Biden.”

Perry added that under President Donald Trump’s administration, “We’ve all been drafted on the worst reality show that’s ever been produced, and none of us have been paid for it.”