‘Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story’ Trailer Chronicles Media Mogul’s Rise in Life and in Hollywood

Abbey White
·2 min read
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Prime Video has released the trailer for Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story, a documentary almost a decade in the making.

The nearly three-minute trailer (below) details Perry’s rule-breaking rise to Hollywood prominence alongside an at-times-trying personal life. That includes an abusive upbringing, resulting in an estranged relationship with his father, and in his adulthood, watching his mother “slowly dying.”

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“He had some horrific experiences that ultimately led to the characters he created and the imagination that he had,” says one voice in the trailer.

One of Perry’s friends details how the duo were so broke, they’d share burgers over discussions of his “great dreams,” while other talking heads elaborate on the challenges he faced once entering Hollywood — a space where he “broke every rule.”

“A studio executive said to him: ‘Black people don’t go to the movies.’ They were just wrong on every count when it came to Tyler,” another voice adds.

“All these people told me what I would never be. Nobody had said what I could be,” Perry is heard saying before he defends himself against a chorus of critics. “What I will not do is change because some critics think it’s not art.”

The film — whose title is a nod to Perry’s mother — traces how the writer, actor, filmmaker, studio head and media mogul has used entertainment to heal childhood trauma, “transforming his pain into promise.” A portrait of a visionary and innovator, Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story offers a “harrowing but faithful” look at his road in an industry that did not always make space for him.

The documentary is directed by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz, and produced by Bekele, Jasmine K. White and Asante White.

“Do not play him small,” warns Oprah in the trailer, as Gayle King notes, “There was no denying the talent and the power of Tyler Perry.”

Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story releases on Prime Video on Nov. 17.

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